00:0011 people died when a small plane crashed in the northeastern French town of Tomblaine on Sunday, narrowly missing nearby
00:07homes.
00:08Local officials and a witness say the dead included a pilot and 10 parachutists.
00:14The aircraft was used by a parachuting school and went down shortly after takeoff, according to officials,
00:20who say it was carrying five trainee parachutists and five instructors.
00:25French media reported the trainees were a group of nurses.
00:29The plane came down in a residential area near a shopping center.
00:33The wreckage of the aircraft is strewn across a bike path.
00:36A witness who declined to be identified described the moment of the crash and its aftermath.
00:43When we saw it climbing, its nose was really pointed upwards.
00:47And then suddenly, silence.
00:48With the windows open, since it's so hot, there was no more noise and all at once it veered off
00:53to the right.
00:54Because there's an embankment on the other side by the road, we couldn't see what happened.
00:59I didn't see the crash.
01:00I just heard the sound.
01:03We saw right away that it was over, that they had all died instantly.
01:07There was no movement and it was clear the impact had been too violent for there to be any survivors.
01:14People at the scene tried to douse the flames with fire extinguishers to keep the aircraft from catching fire.
01:22France's interior minister visited the site hours after the crash, where he said the plane plummeted shortly after takeoff,
01:29crashing about a thousand feet from the end of the runway of Nancy Essie Airport from where it departed.
01:34He also said some of the families of those killed were at the airport and witnessed the crash themselves.
01:40Media reports said the plane was registered in Germany.
01:44Germany's foreign ministry did not immediately comment.
01:47It was not immediately clear whether extreme heat played a role.
01:52Nancy, the city near Tomblain, recorded its highest temperature on record a day earlier.
01:58Nancy, the city near Tomblain, recorded its highest temperature on record a day earlier.
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