5 nursing students among 11 killed in French skydiving plane crash

A skydiving plane crashed Sunday in eastern France, killing all 11 people on board, local authorities said, in one of the country's deadliest ever light aircraft accidents. The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students, and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. The students were a group of nurses, according to a source close to the case and confirmed by the head of Meurthe-et-Moselle's nursing council, Thierry Pechey. "They were colleagues who had decided to go on a first skydiving jump, no doubt to unwind, as we're going through a difficult time with the heatwave," he said. Mayor of the nearby city of Nancy, Mathieu Klein, said the victims "died in full view of their loved ones, who were preparing to film the tandem skydives." Medical and psychological support teams were caring for relatives of the victims who were present, as well as other witnesses, according to local authorities. The wreckage of a Pilatus PC-6 light aircraft after it crashed at Tomblaine, on the outskirts of Nancy, eastern France on June 28, 2026. Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP via Getty Images The aircraft, registered in Germany, crashed in a grassy area near the runway of the Nancy-Essey aerodrome, close to a residential area and two roads, an AFP journalist reported. …