Two dead and two seriously injured in plane crash in Viernheim

Two men died in a plane crash in Viernheim, Hesse. A woman and a small child were seriously injured. As the police headquarters in South Hesse announced, the small plane crashed for unknown reasons while approaching an airfield in Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg, where a summer air sports festival was taking place.

According to police, the 67-year-old suspected pilot and a 76-year-old passenger died. A 40-year-old woman and a three-year-old child were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The towns of Viernheim and Weinheim are located right on the border of the two federal states and are therefore only a few kilometers apart. A summer festival organized by the Weinheim-Bergstraße 1932 air sports club took place at the airfield in Weinheim this weekend. Several aerobatic flights were also announced. The club shut down its website a short time later.

Crashed plane

Several emergency vehicles from the fire department, the police and the German Red Cross were on site. Both a DRF Luftrettung helicopter and an ADAC helicopter flew over the scene of the accident.

The small, red and white plane crash-landed on a grassy area right next to a row of bushes. The front half was almost completely destroyed. Debris lay scattered around the plane. Immediately behind the bushes is an airfield runway from which other planes took off while the accident was being recorded.

According to the police, the Darmstadt public prosecutor's office ordered the aircraft wreckage to be seized. The Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, together with the criminal police, has started investigating the exact cause of the accident.