A 31-year-old pilot instructor and a 75-year-old man were killed on Monday August 23 in the accident of a tourist plane in Wambrechies (North), near Lille, according to the firefighters and the prosecution.
The emergency services intervened shortly before 4:00 p.m. "
following the fall of an aircraft in the immediate vicinity of the Bondues aerodrome
", reported the operational fire and rescue center of the North in a press release.
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“
The aircraft caught fire following the impact.
The two occupants of the plane died,
”continue the firefighters.
According to a source close to the emergency services, the plane crashed in a field, in the immediate vicinity of the runways.
"
An investigation is open for manslaughter, which is entrusted to the research section of the air transport gendarmerie and to the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP) North
", declared from the scene of the tragedy the prosecutor of Lille Carole Etienne, in a video posted on Twitter by a journalist from the daily
La Voix du Nord
.
"
Technical anomaly
"
The investigation has "
two parts
", she said: one intended to "
determine the technical reasons which led to the crash
" and the other concerns "
deaths
". The victims are "
a 31-year-old pilot instructor and a person accompanying him, (...) aged 75
", who "
may have been out for a walk
", the investigation having in particular to determine whether he was "
Student or not,
" continued Ms. Etienne.
According to the first elements of the investigation “
we can presume a technical anomaly, which seems to have been sensed by the pilot, (...) It seems that there was a half-hour flight and a return to the aerodrome with the identification of an anomaly which was not an identification of distress, (...) but of a priority return
”, she specified. In June, three people had already died in the accident of another tourist plane shortly after takeoff from Bondues aerodrome.