Three Dutch die in small airplane crash in Germany

A small aircraft carrying three Dutch people crashed in Erkelenz, not far from the German border near Roermand. Local police confirmed all three were dead at the scene on Monday morning.

The victims were a 57-year-old man from the Súdwest-Fryslân area of Friesland, and a 58-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman, both from Amsterdam, the foreign affairs ministry told broadcaster NOS. Their names have not been released but next of kin have been notified, the ministry said.

The plane, a four-seat Cessna 172, belonged to Vliegschool Hilversum, a flight school based at the airfield outside Hilversum. Flight tracking data show it took off at 10.25am and disappeared from radar at 11.18am near Erkelenz.

The school released a statement: “With great concern we announce that an accident has occurred in Germany involving one of our aircraft, a Cessna 172. The circumstances of the incident are still unclear.”

The school has halted all its flights while the investigation into the crash is ongoing. The purpose of the flight, and what caused it to crash, has not been made clear.

Dutch aviation safety investigators are joining German authorities to establish what happened, broadcaster NOS reported.

German media reports indicate that the plane may have been on route to Freiburg, and that the pilot had contacted air traffic control due to bad weather before the plane began losing altitude and crashed.