Five die in Charleroi plane crash

Three young children, their mother and grandfather died when a small passenger plane crashed at Belgium’s Charleroi airport on Saturday, closing the airport for six hours at the start of the Belgian half-term holiday. The Cessna had problems during take-off and tried to return to Charleroi to make an emergency landing but crashed on the side of the runway, airport officials said. “There was a problem during take-off and they tried to come back, but unfortunately the plane crashed,” said an airport spokeswoman. “Five people were killed.” Firefighters sprayed water on the plane, which was reduced to a wreck of twisted metal with only the tail still visible, TV images showed. The airport was closed immediately after the crash, which happened just before 10.00, and reopened at 16.00 after an investigation on the runway was completed. Ryanair, the principal user of the airport, said it had cancelled four departures and diverted inbound flights. Airport officials said the five killed were three young children, their mother and grandfather – renowned Brussels architect Jean Dumont, who was also the pilot of the private aircraft – and were all Belgian nationals. Prime minister Elio Di Rupo offered his condolences to the family of the victims via Twitter. Charleroi is the country’s second international airport after Brussels’ Zaventem and expects to handle 140,000 passengers over the half-term holiday period, when many families take ski holidays abroad.

(Reuters)