Eleven dead. Just like that. A small, single-engine plane carrying a pilot and ten skydivers plummeted out of the sky on Sunday morning, slamming into a bicycle path in the northeastern French town of Tomblaine and narrowly avoiding a catastrophic collision with nearby homes and a shopping center. The dead include five skydiving instructors and five trainees—reportedly a group of local nurses—who had only just taken off for what was supposed to be a routine jump.
It went quiet. A witness, speaking on condition of anonymity, watched the aircraft climb around 11:00 a.m. before the engine noise abruptly died, leaving nothing but a sickening silence in the air. No fire. No explosion. Just a sudden, terrifying drop. Regional Prefect Yves Seguy confirmed the worst, describing a vertical plunge that ended on the pavement, mere yards from residential properties. A few meters either way, and the body count would have been much higher.
The plane was registered in Germany, though Berlin has kept quiet so far. Investigators will have to look at the weather, too. The region is baking. Just a day earlier, neighboring Nancy recorded its highest temperature in history, raising questions about whether the oppressive, thin air of the heatwave played a role in the engine’s sudden failure.
The local prosecutor is staying silent for now. Meanwhile, the French interior and transport ministers are already rushing to the scene to do the usual political hand-wringing. For eleven families, the weekend ended in the worst way possible.
