A tourist plane crashed at sea off Propriano (Southern Corsica) late Thursday afternoon and the four people on board died, said the Mediterranean Maritime Prefecture.
“Around 5:40 p.m., visual witnesses of the crash alerted the CROSS Med in Corsica which then immediately deployed a major air and nautical rescue device”, composed of two boats and three helicopters, specified the Mediterranean maritime prefecture (Prémar ) in a press release.
The accident took place in the Gulf of Valinco near Cap Laurosu in Southern Corsica. “He intervened as the plane was leaving the Propriano aerodrome during a take-off maneuver which suggests an engine failure. In any case, this is the preferred hypothesis,” the Ajaccio public prosecutor, Nicolas Septe, told AFP.
Died on site
An investigation was opened for manslaughter by aircraft due to pilot fault or maintenance problem and was entrusted to the research section of the air transport gendarmerie (GTA).
“The four people on board the aircraft were quickly recovered by rescue means” but “were declared dead despite the care provided by the emergency services to resuscitate them,” added Prémar. They are two French men and two women whose identities were not immediately known, a source close to the case told AFP. The prosecution confirmed to AFP that it only had “two identities out of the four” and specified that the people identified were “a priori” French.