Plane, helicopter collide in Spain, killing 7

A small plane and a helicopter crashed midair on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday, killing seven people.

The crash took place around lunchtime near the inland town of Inca.

After colliding, the plane and the helicopter fell into a neighborhood and the plane caught fire after hitting the ground, but nobody was reported injured. Residents helped put out the flames.

Francina Armengol, president of the regional government of the Balearic Islands, told reporters that it was “too early” to discuss the reasons for the crash.

The helicopter and the plane collided below 1,000 feet, out of the range monitored by the island’s air traffic controllers, according to Diario de Mallorca, a local newspaper.

Spanish police did not immediately offer details about the passengers, but local media said that two people had been onboard the small plane, while the helicopter had carried a couple and their two children, as well as the pilot.

The newspaper La Vanguardia identified the plane as a two-seater Aeroprakt A22.

Diario de Mallorca identified the pilot of the small plane as Juanjo Vidal. The newspaper said that he had been making his second flight of the day, alongside a friend, and that his wife had watched the crash. She had been at a nearby airfield in Binissalem, where the plane had taken off.

The helicopter, which had left from a separate airfield, was a Bell 216 owned by Rotorflug, a German company. The family onboard the helicopter is believed to have been from Germany, according to the newspaper El País, although their nationality was not officially confirmed.

Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, joined local politicians in offering his condolences to the families of the victims. Armengol announced three days of official mourning.

Mallorca is the largest of the islands that form the Balearic archipelago, a major tourism destination off the eastern coast of Spain. The worst air disaster in the archipelago occurred in 1972, when a plane flown by Iberia, Spain’s national airline, crashed on the island of Ibiza. One hundred and two people were killed.

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