2 dead, 5 missing in air crash off France
PARIS - An Airbus A320 passenger plane crashed off France's southern coast during a maintenance flight yesterday, killing at least two of the seven people on board, authorities said.
The airplane had undergone checks at the EAS Industries aircraft maintenance center in the French city of Perpignan, near the border with Spain. It was being leased by German charter airline XL Airways and was due to return to service for Air New Zealand next month, officials from those companies said.
The jet plunged into the Mediterranean as it was approaching the Perpignan airport, from which it had taken off on a circular flight an hour earlier, France's civil aviation accident investigation bureau said. A team of French and German investigators, as well as civil aviation officials and Airbus experts, were heading to the crash site, about 12 1/2 miles off the coast, it said.
Two bodies were recovered at sea, the local government said, without identifying the victims.
Five boats, two helicopters, and a patrol airplane were searching choppy seas for the other five people who were on board, the regional center for Mediterranean rescue operations said.
"The fuselage has been located. The rescue operations will determine if there are any survivors," said First Officer Sandrine Parro, with the center.
Divers were expected to search for the aircraft's black box recorders today, said Bernard Celier, spokesman for the maritime prefecture for the Mediterranean.
The airplane - owned by Air New Zealand - has been operated by XL Airways under a lease, company spokesman Asger Schubert said in Frankfurt.
The crew included two German pilots, Schubert said. Another pilot and three engineers from Air New Zealand were also on board, as well as an aircraft inspector from the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand's chief executive, said at the company's headquarters in Auckland.
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