Plane with European tourists crashes near Peru's Nazca lines, killing all 13 aboard
All 13 people on a plane that crashed near Peru's Nazca plateau on August 1 died, including 11 tourists and two Peruvian pilots.
On August 1, a plane carrying European tourists crashed in Peru near the famous ancient geoglyphs of the Nazca plateau. All 13 people on board were killed – 11 tourists and two Peruvian pilots.
Germany's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, August 2, that two of the dead tourists were German citizens. The others, according to preliminary information, had Italian and Spanish citizenship. The victims were between 28 and 78 years old, according to Deutsche Welle.
The single-engine light aircraft, a Cessna 208 operated by the company Aerodiana, took off around noon local time from the airport of the port city of Pisco. The goal of the flight was to tour the Nazca geoglyphs. About an hour after takeoff, the pilots declared an emergency, after which contact was lost, Peru's Transport Ministry said.
An investigation into the crash is underway. A day earlier, sightseeing flights over the giant ancient drawings had been temporarily suspended due to strong winds exceeding 40 kilometres per hour. However, it is unknown whether weather conditions caused the August 1 crash.
The Nazca plateau in southern Peru is home to hundreds of giant images of animals, plants and geometric figures, making it a popular tourist attraction. Because of their size, the geoglyphs are best seen from the air, which gave rise to an industry of tourist flights in small planes.
Such flights have led to disasters before. In October 2010, a plane belonging to AirNasca crashed, killing four British tourists and two Peruvian pilots. In 2022, seven people died in an accident, including two Chileans and three Dutch citizens.
