A tourist plane has crashed in southern Peru, near the famous Nazca Lines, killing 13 people, including 11 foreign tourists and two pilots. The plane, a Cessna Grand Caravan, crashed in Pueblo Viejo, approximately 4 miles from the city of Nazca and 12km from the Nazca Lines site, according to local authorities.
The passengers were identified as seven Italians, two Germans, and two Spanish people. The pilot and copilot were named as Americo Salazar Cuellar and Irenka Del Carpio, respectively. The plane had departed from the nearby city of Pisco at about 1 pm local time to fly over the Nazca Lines but lost contact with the control tower minutes later and crashed at 1:20 pm, police reported.
The cause of the crash is unknown, and local authorities have launched an investigation. Police Major Jorge Andrade told reporters at the crash site that there were no survivors, and four bodies had been recovered so far. Video footage showed firefighters and police working amid the smoldering wreckage of the plane in the desert, with images appearing to show bodies on the sand.
This deadly plane crash is not the first at the Unesco world heritage site, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Several operators compete to offer overflights of the iconic lines, which date back to AD 200-700, amid serious concerns about the safety and maintenance of the aircraft. In 2022, a small plane crash killed seven people, including two Chileans and three Dutch nationals. In October 2010, four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members were killed when a small plane operated by AirNasca crashed after flying over the lines.
Peru’s tourism ministry expressed
