Small plane crash: search for cause takes weeks

After a small plane crashed with two deaths in Gundelsheim, Baden-Württemberg (Heilbronn district), the search for the cause will probably take weeks. An external expert was commissioned, said a police spokesman. We have to wait for his report. Among other things, the aircraft wreckage must be examined and the flight recorder evaluated.

According to dpa information, the dead are a 38-year-old and his father. Both came from Thuringia. The police did not initially confirm this. In order to unequivocally establish the identity of the two victims, DNA samples will now be taken and compared, it was said. The dental pattern of the dead may also be compared. The police expect a result within this week.

The two-seat ultralight aircraft crashed and burned out in a vineyard near Gundelsheim on Sunday. The registration number was no longer visible. The bodies were recovered on Sunday. The machine took off from Arnstadt in Thuringia (Ilm district). What is clear so far is that shortly after 12 p.m., the small plane took off for unknown reasons while approaching a nearby airfield, hit a fence and then collided with a tree. The machine crashed in the vineyard and burst into flames.