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World War II plane crash in Switzerland kills 20

Sunday, 05 August 2018 12:33 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 August 2018 5:32 PM ]

The undated photo shows a Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft.

An aircraft manufactured in Germany some 80 years ago has crashed in Switzerland, killing all the 20 people on board.

The Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, used as a collector’s item, crashed into the Piz Segnas mountain east of Switzerland Saturday evening.

The doomed aircraft, carrying 17 passengers and three crew, had departed from Ticino in southern Switzerland and was bound for Duebendorf military airfield near the city of Zurich when it crashed into the mountainside at an altitude of 2,450 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level on the west side of the Piz Segnas mountain shortly before 5 p.m. local time (1500 GMT).

The aircraft was in possession of JU-Air, a company with links to the Swiss Air Force.

Among those killed were 17 people from Switzerland and a three-person family from Austria, a police source was quoted by AFP as saying.

An eyewitness said the plane turned 180 degrees before nosediving “like a stone" and the wreckage was scattered over "a very small area," suggesting that the incident was not caused by an explosion.

Swiss police said five copters were involved in the search and rescue operation and the airspace over the crash site was to remain closed until late Sunday.

In a statement on its website, JU-Air said it was "deeply saddened" and its "thoughts were with the passengers, the crew and families and friends of the victims."

JU-Air runs a small fleet of four Junker planes, all built in 1939 and operated by ex-military and professional pilots.

The crash followed another fatal incident on the same day, in which a tourist plane carrying a couple and two young children crashed in a forest in central Switzerland and immediately burst into flames. No survivors have been found in that incident.

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