Malta crash kills French officials

A RECONNAISSANCE plane working for France’s defence ministry crashed in a ball of flames at Malta’s international airport yesterday, killing all five people on board, officials said.

The plane plummeted into the ground nose-first shortly after taking off at 7.20am for an undisclosed surveillance mission from the island, which lies 350km north of Tripoli, capital of strife-torn Libya.

The Maltese government said that there was no indication of an explosion prior to the crash, but did not rule out sabotage.

The French defence ministry said the plane had been working on its behalf, carrying out reconnaissance missions in the Mediterranean.

Three of those who died were employees of the defence ministry, it said.

The two others were pilots employed by CAE Aviation, a company based in Luxembourg which specialises in aerial surveillance.

CAE Aviation said the plane was being flown by an experienced crew with no technical issues reported on previous flights. “At this stage, no cause for the accident can be determined,” it said.

The defence ministry in Paris refused to release any details of the nature of the plane’s mission amid speculation it could have been bound for Libya.

Malta described the plane as having been working for a five-month-old French “customs” operation.

It had been due to return to the airport after a flight of a few hours yesterday without touching down anywhere else.

“The flight was part of a French customs surveillance operation which has been taking place for the past five months, with the aim of tracing routes of illicit trafficking of all sorts, including human and drug trafficking amongst others,” the government statement said.