French surveillance plane crashes in Malta, 5 killed

A reconnaissance plane working for France’s Defense Ministry crashed in a ball of flames at Malta’s international airport on Monday, killing all five people on board, officials said.
The plane plummeted into the ground nose-first shortly after taking off for an undisclosed surveillance mission from the island, which lies just 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Tripoli, the capital of conflict-torn Libya. The Maltese government said in a statement that there was no indication of an explosion prior to the crash but did not rule out sabotage.
The French defense ministry said the plane had been working on its behalf, carrying out “reconnaissance missions in the Mediterranean.”
Three of those who died were employees of the Defense Ministry, it said. The two others were pilots employed by CAE Aviation, a private company based in Luxembourg which specializes in aerial surveillance and regularly works with European military.
Defense sources said “not all” of the dead had been from the French military but did not want to reveal further details pending notification of all the victims’ families.
CAE aviation said the plane “was being flown by an experienced crew with no technical issues reported on previous flights.”
It added: “At this stage, no cause for the accident can be determined.”
The defense ministry in Paris refused to release any details of the nature of the plane’s mission amid speculation it could have been bound for Libya.
France led the 2011 Western military intervention in the north African country which led to the overthrow and death of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi and plunged the country into a state of chaos from which it has barely recovered.

Source: Arab News