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The photo provided by Police Graubuenden shows the wreckage of the old-time propeller plane Ju 52 after it went down went down Saturday Aug, 4 2018 on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain’s western flank about 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. All 20 people on board were killed, police said Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. (Polizei Graubuenden via AP) |
By GEIR MOULSON, AP
BERLIN
An old-time propeller plane crashed near-vertically at high speed into a Swiss mountain, killing all 20 people on board, police said Sunday.
The Junkers Ju-52 plane, operated by the Swiss company Ju-Air, went down Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain’s western flank about 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. The mountainous area in southeastern Switzerland is popular with hikers and skiers and includes a glacier.
[post_ads]Police said Sunday they have now determined that all 20 people on board the plane, including its three crew members, died.
Eleven men and nine women between the ages of 42 and 84 were killed. Most of the victims were Swiss but they also included a couple and their son from Austria.
Photos released by Graubuenden canton (state) police showed the crumpled wreckage of the plane lying on the mountain, with only the upside-down tail more or less intact.
Police said they are not aware of any distress call from the aircraft before it crashed.
Daniel Knecht of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed.
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The photo provided by Police Graubuenden shows the wreckage of the old-time propeller plane Ju 52 after it went down went down Saturday Aug, 4 2018 on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain’s western flank about 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. All 20 people on board were killed, police said Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. (Polizei Graubuenden via AP) |
Officials can essentially rule out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire, and there’s no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash, he added.
He said that officials expect the investigation of the cause to be “relatively complex.”
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The plane was flying the passengers back from a two-day trip to Locarno in southern Switzerland to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich. Authorities were informed of the crash at 5 p.m. Saturday, 50 minutes after the aircraft had taken off from Locarno’s Magadino airfield.
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FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2004 photo ,from left, the Tschingel Horn mountains, Atlas ridge and Mount Piz Segnas are pictured in Switzerland. Police in southeastern Graubuenden canton (state) said a several-seater plane crashed Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain’s western flank about 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. There was no immediate word on casualties. (Arno Balzarini/Keystone via AP, file) |
Ju-Air’s Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.
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Ju-Air started operating flights with the old-timers in 1983, and the plane that crashed — with the registration HB-HOT — had been in service with the company since 1985.
The aircraft have three engines, one on the nose and one on each wing.
The company, which operates two other Ju-52s, suspended flights until further notice after the crash.
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FILE - In this Saturday, May 30, 2009 photo Mount Piz Segnas and the Atlas, back right, are pictured in Switzerland. Police in southeastern Graubuenden canton (state) said a several-seater plane crashed Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain’s western flank about 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. There was no immediate word on casualties. (Arno Balzarini/Keystone via AP, file) |
