KATOWICE, POLAND (BNO NEWS) — Four people were killed on early Sunday evening when a small plane crashed in a forest in southern Poland, officials said on Monday. There were no survivors.
The accident involving a small Cirrus aircraft happened at around 7.30 p.m. local time when it disappeared from radar about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) west of Katowice International Airport, which is located in Poland’s Silesian region.
Within minutes, emergency services were dispatched to the region to find the aircraft. “At approximately 8.20 p.m. local time, police located the place of the tragedy,” a police spokesperson said. “The light aircraft crashed in a forest in Żyglinie, about 200 meters (218 yards) from a provincial road.”
Four Polish nationals – two men and two women – were on board the small aircraft when it went down. Firefighters and emergency teams rushed to the crash site but found no survivors. The victims were all aged between 47 and 51, police said.
A spokesperson for Katowice International Airport said the pilot of the small aircraft had reported engine problems shortly before the aircraft vanished from the radar, but other details about the possible cause of the crash were not immediately known.
Earlier this month, LOT Polish Airlines flight 016 made a spectacular emergency landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport. The Boeing 767, which was carrying 220 passengers and 11 crew members, slid down the runway on its ‘belly’ due to a malfunctioning landing gear. There were no injuries.