Glider/Skydiving Crash

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/we...4aug2003-5.htm

Posted :Sun, 24 Aug 2003 6:15 AEST

Six killed in mid-air plane crash in Germany
Six Germans have been killed when two small aircraft
collided in clear skies over the southern German state
of Bavaria, police said.

The crash involved a one-man glider and a Cessna plane
with a pilot and four passengers who were planning to
do tandem parachute jumps, a police spokesman said.

The wreckage of the two aircraft landed in a corn field
just outside the rural town of Lechsend, near Donauwoerth
north of Munich.

The Cessna was burning on the ground and extinguished by
firefighters.

"All we know at this point is that the two aircraft crashed
into each other in mid-air," police spokesman Josef Bauer
said.

"The wreckage landed in a field just outside of the town.
Luckily no one on the ground was hurt."

The collision occurred shortly after 12:00 GMT.

The victims, five men and one woman, were aged between 21
and 52.

The plane was carrying four passengers, including the one
woman, who were planning to do parachute jumps.

Both aircraft, which were completely destroyed on impact
with the ground, had taken off from nearby air fields.

"We don't know at what altitude the accident happened," Mr
Bauer said when asked about a local television news report
saying the crash happened at an altitude of 1,200 metres.

He said the skies were clear and visibility was unlimited
on a warm summer afternoon.

A Reuters photographer at the scene said wreckage was
strewn several hundred metres across the field.

Police said criminal investigators were at the scene and
trying to determine the cause of the crash.

-- Reuters

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