Families watched in shock as a skydiving plane carrying their family members on what was meant to be an exhilarating introduction to parachuting crashed in northeastern France on Sunday, killing all 11 people on board, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The dead included five parachuting instructors, five novice jumpers and the pilot, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said it was France\u2019s biggest aviation accident involving skydiving in about 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of the victims\u2019 families witnessed the aircraft falling with their very own eyes. So there may be tremendous emotion and a good greater psychological trauma,\u201d Nunez said.<\/p>\n
He refused to take a position on what caused the crash but said the plane dropped out of the sky suddenly. He said it had just taken off from the Nancy-Essey airfield on the outskirts of town of Nancy when it got here down about 300 meters (yards) from the runway.<\/p>\n
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Yves S\u00e9guy, prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, said the plane suffered a malfunction and \u201cfell almost vertically,\u201d narrowly missing a built-up area.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHad it occurred just a couple of dozen meters away, the accident could have caused collateral casualties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The plane banked to the left after takeoff and crashed lower than a minute later near houses, in accordance with the flight tracking service Flightradar24.<\/p>\n
Police cordoned off the crumpled wreckage.<\/p>\n
Flight tracking sites identified the plane as a single-engine Pilatus PC-6, a small transporter of freight, passengers and skydivers.<\/p>\n
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