Swiss Alps plane crash: Vintage aircraft crashes into mountain, killing all 20 passengers and crew on board

Lack of distress call or black box aboard 79-year-old aircraft will make investigations ‘complex’, investigators say

Alex Matthews-King
Monday 06 August 2018 09:22 BST
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The plane was near vertical when it crashed at high speed with only the tail section intact
The plane was near vertical when it crashed at high speed with only the tail section intact

All 20 passengers and crew were killed when a vintage propeller-driven plane has crashed into a mountain in Switzerland, just hours after another Alps crash killed a family of four.

The 79-year old plane, a Junkers JU-52, crashed above the ski resort of Flims on the 3,000m tall mountain of Piz Segnas on Saturday evening.

There were nine women and 11 men on board, aged between 42 and 84. The 17 passengers and three crew members were mainly Swiss nationals, as well as an Austrian couple and their son. Their names have not yet been released.

The flight was returning from a trip to the country’s Ticino region when it crashed, about 50 minutes after taking off.

Parts of the area, a glacier popular with skiiers and hikers, were closed to the public with officials saying recovery work would take a few days.

Police said uncovering what had happened would be “relatively complex”, as there was no distress call from the pilots before the crash and it had no “black box” – the crash-resistant flight recorders on modern planes.

“We can assume that the aircraft hit the ground near-vertically and at relatively high speed,” Daniel Knecht of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board said at a news conference in Flims.

Photos released by Graubünden canton police show only the tail section remains in-tact.

There were no signs of it breaking up or being in flames before the crash, and Mr Knecht said it does not appear to have collided with another aircraft or wire or obstacle, and there is no suspicion of foul play at present.

He also discounted the plane’s age as a factor, saying: “Older planes, if they are correctly maintained, can be operated safely.”

The plane had been kept from being decommissioned after a national fundraising campaign and was operated by a small Swiss company, Ju-Air, which offers “adventure flights” exploring the mountains in vintage aircraft.

Both pilots, aged 62 and 63, had many hours practice on the JU-52 and had worked as Swiss military and airline pilots.

Chief executive and co-founder Kurt Waldmeier said: “Yesterday was the worst day in the 36-year history of JU-Air. We have all suffered a very great loss.”

He added that the planes were "flown exclusively by very experienced professional pilots, and strictly checked and maintained by our own technicians.”

The planes are checked regularly he said, adding : “We know of no technical problems with this aircraft. We cannot yet explain what led to the tragic accident on Piz Segnas."

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