A tourist plane carrying foreign visitors to view Peru’s famous Nazca Lines crashed shortly after take-off on Saturday, killing all 13 people on board.
According to AFP, the Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft departed from Pisco Airport, about 240 kilometres south of Lima, at around 1:00 pm local time before crashing near Vista Alegre in the Nazca region.
Police confirmed that the crash claimed the lives of 11 passengers and two crew members, with no survivors.
The victims included seven Italians, two Germans and two Spaniards, alongside the two Peruvian crew members. Authorities said those on board ranged in age from 24 to 78.
Police Major Jorge Andrade said rescue teams recovered the charred bodies from the wreckage overnight and transferred them to the regional morgue.
Emergency responders, including firefighters and forensic teams, worked through the debris as investigators began examining the cause of the accident.
Peru’s Ministry of Transport said the country’s civil aviation authority and air accident investigation agency would conduct a full investigation into the crash.
President Keiko Fujimori said the government was considering the possible closure of Pisco Airport following the tragedy.
The aircraft was operated by AeroDiana, a company that offers sightseeing flights over the UNESCO-listed Nazca Lines, a vast collection of ancient geoglyphs carved into the desert between 500 BC and 500 AD.
Municipal authorities in Vista Alegre said preliminary findings suggested the aircraft suffered an “in-flight emergency”, although no further details have been released. A local resident reported that the plane exploded on impact.
The latest accident is the third fatal sightseeing flight crash near the Nazca Lines in recent years. Seven people died in a similar crash in 2022, while another crash in 2010 claimed the lives of four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members.
