An ULM pilot and his passenger, a young tourist whose age has not been specified, were killed in the crash of their aircraft on Sunday morning in western Reunion, said the gendarmerie.
Maneuvered by a 41-year-old pilot with 1400 hours to his credit, the ultralight motorized glider (ULM) struck the wall of the Maïdo which rises to 2200 meters to the west of the island.
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The impact occurred less than 50 meters from the vertical line of the cliff.
The accident took place around 8:00 a.m. (6:00 a.m. in Paris) during an overflight of the west of Reunion in which four microlights in all participated.
The glider struck the rock face in front of the occupants of the aircraft behind it and several other witnesses.
The Maïdo massif is one of the main tourist sites of the island.
About thirty firefighters and gendarmes were engaged in the rescue operations.
Their intervention was complicated by a strong wind and by the instability of the cliff, weakened by a major fire in November 2020. Several hours were needed to extricate the bodies of the victims and win them by helicopter.
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The investigation will determine if there was "
a technical problem, a weather problem or a human problem
", indicated Martin Perraudeau, the captain of the gendarmerie who supervised the operations.
The last crash involving a microlight in Reunion took place in 2015, also in the west of the island.
Two people, the pilot and his passenger, were killed.
