A Cessna 207 single-engine passenger plane crashed Friday in southern Peru causing the death of the seven occupants, including five tourists who came to observe the geoglyphs of the Nazca desert, announced the Peruvian Ministry of Transport.
The accident occurred shortly after 12:00 local time (17:00 UTC) when the aircraft “in which were travelling two crew members and five passengers, fell to the ground in the vicinity of the airport of Maria Reiche, in the city of Nazca, shortly after takeoff,” the ministry said in a statement. “There are no survivors,” the ministry added.
In addition to the two Peruvian pilots, the tourists were two Chileans and three Dutch, according to the local Civil Protection
Classified as a World Heritage Site, the Nazca geoglyphs, discovered almost a century ago, are geometric figures representing around 70 animals and plants, visible only from the sky.
These lines, located on an area of ??750 km² in the desert, about 350 km south of Lima, had, according to the hypotheses, a ceremonial, astronomical function or acted as a calendar.
Near the site is a small airfield (Nazca Maria Reiche Neuman Airport NZC/SPZA) from which dozens of tourist planes operate.
In October 2010, four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members died in the crash of their plane after flying over the site.
