Three injured as small plane forced to land near flats in Paris suburb

A small twin-engine plane forced to make an emergency landing in a Paris suburb ended up crashing into the wall of a block of flats, injuring three people on board on Monday (December 4).

The aircraft landed in a residential area in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne). It is thought to have suffered a major engine failure.

Three people on board were taken to hospital requiring urgent attention but their injuries were not considered life-threatening. No-one else was injured.

An investigation is underway to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.

Emergency landing

The aircraft was on a training flight from Rouen on Monday when just after 17:00 it was forced to make an emergency landing.

Witnesses said it attempted to land between two buildings located at Maxim Gorky Boulevard before crashing against the wall of an apartment building.

It eventually came to a halt in the garden at the back of the apartment building.

Parts of the plane were strewn over the roof of a nearby garage. The tail of the aircraft was detached from the rest of the plane and the wings were largely torn off.

Engine failure

An investigation has been opened by France’s civil aviation authority, the Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile (BEA), and should make it possible to determine the circumstances of the accident.

Transport Minister Clément Beaune spoke of engine failure on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). However the BEA will reconstruct the flight to confirm the cause of the failure.

An investigation into involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others was also opened by the regional prosecutor and the air transport gendarmerie.

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