As many as 13 people died after a plane crashed into a field in Peru on Saturday outside the city of Nazca, local authorities said.
Peru’s Ministry for Trade and Tourism said that 11 “foreign tourists” and two crew members were on the plane that crashed Saturday.
State news agency Agencia Andina reported that two , two Spanish and seven Italian tourists were on the plane.
All about Peru plane crash
The ministry said the plane crashed in the area of Socos, approximately 6 km (4 miles) from the city of Nazca and roughly 19 km (12 miles) from the Nazca Lines site.
In a statement on Facebook, Nazca’s municipal government said the plane was taking tourists on a sightseeing flight of the , a group of extensive geoglyphs scraped into the desert around Nazca hundreds of years ago by Peru’s Indigenous inhabitants.
The lines formthat can only be fully appreciated from planes or viewing towers.
Nazca’s government said the plane departed from the nearby city of Ica and was operated by Peruvian company Aerodiana.
On its website, the airline said that it has offered scenic flights over the Nazca lines for the past 14 years, using Cessna Grand Caravan planes.
‘Emergency situation’
The small plane, a Cessna Caravan C-208 aircraft, had taken off from the Pisco Airport at roughly 12:10 pm local time.
At approximately 1:00 pm local time, the crew reported an emergency situation to the control tower at Nazca airport, after which all radio contact was lost, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement, as per Reuters.
After crashing, the plane caught fire, making any rescue impossible, according to Peruvian broadcaster RPP.
Firefighters and municipal police officers were dispatched to extinguish the fire and carry out initial rescue efforts.
Footage shared on social media showed the smoking wreckage of what appeared to be a small plane on arid plains. Reuters was unable to independently verify the footage.
Al Jazeera shared a video on X, claiming that it shows firefighters dousing the wreckage of a crashed tourist aircraft in southern Peru.
The cause of the crash is unknown and the government said it is investigating the incident. According to the Associated Press, Peruvian authorities said the accident is under investigation.
Aerodiana said in a statement that it “will assess its flight schedule in accordance with the directives of the relevant authorities.”
