Within 20 hours, 2 planes crashed leaving the death toll to be at least 20.
A small plane crashed Saturday into a forest in central Switzerland, killing a local family of four who had just taken off for France, police said.
Police in Nidwalden canton (state) said the aircraft went down Saturday morning near the town of Hergiswil, which is on Lake Lucerne at the foot of Mount Pilatus. Authorities had to send up a helicopter to extinguish the resulting fire before rescue workers could get to the scene, they said.
There was no immediate word on the possible cause of the crash, which was under investigation by Swiss authorities.
Police said later Saturday the victims were a couple and their two children from the region aboard the plane, which had taken off less than 20 minutes earlier from an airfield in Kaegiswil and was headed for France.
In a separate incident, a small airliner crashed in the Swiss Alps.
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Authorities provided few details about the second crash but local airline JU-AIR said one of its Ju-52 airplanes, which seats 17 passengers along with two pilots, had crashed. It was not clear how many people were on the plane.
“We have the sad duty to announce that one of our Ju-52 aircraft had an accident today,” the airline said on its website. “At the moment, no further information is available.”
Police said on Twitter that five helicopters and a large rescue mission were deployed to the scene of the accident, which occurred on the west side of the Piz Segnas mountain in the canton of Graubuenden.
The airspace above the crash site, which is 2,450 meters (8,038 feet) above sea level, was closed by the country’s Federal Office for Civil Aviation.
A local newspaper reported that all passengers aboard the plane were killed.
Neither police nor the airline could immediately be reached on Saturday night but police said on Twitter that further information would be provided on Sunday morning.
Based out of Duebendorf in canton Zurich, JU-AIR offers sightseeing, charter and adventure flights with its three midcentury Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, known affectionately in German as “Auntie Ju” planes.
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