The Swiss-based JU-Air service offers sightseeing and adventure flights in three mid-century Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, which were decommissioned by the Swiss Air Force.
BERN: A vintage Ju-52 tourist plane crashed at altitude in the Swiss Alps on Saturday, in canton Graubünden. All 20 passengers lost their lives in Switzerland’s worst air tragedy since 2001.
Vintage Ju-52 tourist plane was carrying 17 passengers, all Swiss except for an Austrian couple and their son, the Swiss authorities said. Three crew members were also killed in the crash on Saturday.
The victims were 11 men and nine women between the ages of 42 and 84- seven couples from various parts of Switzerland, a couple from neighbouring Austria and their son, and the three crew members. Their names were not released.
The plane went down on the western side of the Piz Segnas mountain on Saturday afternoon, at an altitude of 2,540 metres (8,330 feet). It was travelling between Locarno and Dübendorf when it crashed for unknown reasons.
Daniel Knecht of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed
The Swiss Air Force decommissioned its last three Ju-52 planes in 1982, which were then taken over by an association of Swiss aficionados of such vintage aircraft.
Rescue teams and investigators, with the support of helicopters, were sifting through the debris on Sunday. In recent days, Switzerland has been hit by a heat wave that has pushed daytime temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius.
