© Laurent Azzopardi/Facebook
A video still from an eyewitness video by Laurent Azzopardi/Facebook
A small-engine aircraft has crash-landed in Safi after developing engine trouble the minute it took to air from the MIA runway, in a tragic accident that police say left five dead. Witnesses on site of the rescue described the scene as a pile of charred, black metal parts, owing to the scale of the explosion that ensued as the aircraft, a Fairchild Metroliner, crashed into the ground.
Military sources told Malta Today the small jet was departing to head to Misrata in northwestern Libya, on an anti-human trafficking mission. The EU border agency Frontex has confirmed that the plane was not one of its aircraft, and first reports suggest the crew was French. Earlier reports that the plane belonged to the Luxembourgish military have not yet been confirmed.
A plane-spotter who witnessed the accident said he was just packing up his equipment when the plane crash-landed at around 7:30am. "It was an explosion, a right ball of fire," a visibly-shaken William Farrugia, 19, said.
The aircraft crash-landed on the road between Safi and Kirkop, right outside the MIA runway.
The airplane was seen rising in the air and then nosediving back into the ground. The explosion was caught in dramatic footage by a motorist driving along the road.
Comment: Yet another way to control information access.