A small plane carrying foreign tourists to view Peru’s famed Nazca Lines archaeological site crashed Saturday, killing all 13 people on board, police said.
Seven Italians, two Germans and two Spaniards were killed, along with two crew members, a spokesman for the transport ministry said, adding that the victims were aged between 24 and 78.
The incident occurred shortly after 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) after the Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft took off from the airport in Pisco, located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital Lima.
“We have information that 11 passengers and two crew members have died,” Police Major Jorge Andrade told reporters at the crash site.
“Given the severity of the accident, there are no survivors. We have recovered four bodies so far,” Andrade said, without identifying the victims or giving further details about what caused the crash.
Overnight, police recovered the charred bodies and placed them in black bags for transport to the regional morgue.
Firefighters and police, some wearing face masks, pored over the twisted, smoldering wreckage of the aircraft.
One wheel of the plane lay near the debris, detached from the aircraft.
Peru’s civil aviation authority and the air accident agency will investigate the accident, the transport ministry said.
Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori said her government was mulling the possible closure of the Pisco airport.
– ‘In-flight emergency’ –
The plane was operated by AeroDiana, which offers sightseeing trips lasting 30 minutes to an hour over the Nazca Lines, which is best seen from the air.
The archaeological site features a group of geoglyphs etched into the desert sands that date back to between 500 BC and 500 AD.
The meaning of the geometric shapes and animal outlines remains a mystery, with some believing they had ritual astronomical functions, according to UNESCO, which declared the area a World Heritage site in 1994.
AeroDiana told AFP that it would soon release more information about the crash.
Municipal officials in Vista Alegre, where the plane crashed, said in a statement that preliminary information indicated an “in-flight emergency” was to blame, without offering more details.
One resident of Vista Alegre said the plane exploded on impact.
Dozens of small planes operate from the airport in Pisco, handling a large volume of primarily foreign tourists hoping to visit the Nazca Lines.
Accidents have happened before near the site.
Seven people were killed in a plane crash in 2022, including two Chileans and three Dutch nationals.
In October 2010, four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members died when an AirNasca plane crashed after taking the tourists to view the site.
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