Four young people die in a plane crash in the French Pyrenees

Four people have died in a plane crash in the Ariège department, in the French Pyrenees, very close to the border with Catalonia. The aircraft crashed on Sunday afternoon. On board were a flight instructor and three students from the École Nationale de la Aviation Civile (ENAC), the largest aeronautical school in Europe. All four were between 18 and 25 years old and perished in the accident, the French Ministry of Transport confirmed in a statement. According to local media reports, the plane, a single-engine DR400, was expected to return on Sunday at 5:40 p.m. When it failed to arrive, the Sent Gironç flying club, from where they had departed, alerted the Lyon Air Rescue Coordination Center around 6:00 p.m. that the aircraft was missing. A large operation involving the gendarmerie, firefighters, and civil protection was then deployed. After a two-hour search, they located the crashed plane "at an altitude of 2,000 meters, in a snowy, very dangerous area inaccessible by road," the local prosecutor's office said in a statement. Rescue teams found the wreckage and the bodies of the four occupants in an area near the Eychelle pond, in the municipality of Bethmale. They were a 25-year-old flight instructor, a 21-year-old licensed pilot, a 21-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old man. The Foix prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident and has ordered an autopsy to clarify the causes of death. "We don't know what could have happened."

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot expressed his "sorrow" and conveyed his "condolences" and "support" to the families and loved ones of the victims, as well as to the entire ENAC (French Civil Aviation Authority) in the face of this "terrible tragedy." He affirmed that "these four passionate young people embodied the future of our aviation" and that, therefore, "the entire aeronautical world is in mourning." The president of the flying club, Jacques Danti, told Agence France-Presse that the causes of the accident are inexplicable. "We don't understand what could have happened. The weather was good, it was a recreational flight of 20 to 30 minutes. We don't know what happened, we are devastated," he lamented. In his opinion, the aircraft was in "good condition" and had been regularly maintained. The school has made a psychological support unit available to students and their families, according to a statement from the French Ministry of Transport.