Four killed in light aircraft crash in Haifa IAF base

Aircraft crashes into wall of school building at Air Force base; MDA pronounces fatalities at scene of accident.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
cherokee light aircraft 311 (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
cherokee light aircraft 311
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Four people were killed Thursday morning when the light aircraft they were flying in crashed and burst into flames at the Haifa Airbase Technical School.
A flight instructor and three students, all of who were private citizens and not from the Air Force, were killed.
Magen David Adom spokesman Zachi Heller said that rescue personnel who arrived on the scene found the four bodies scattered outside of the burnt wreckage of the plane. All four were pronounced dead at the scene.
Though the circumstances of the crash are still under investigation, Heller said that the plane experienced some sort of technical malfunction around 9:15 am and that the pilot had tried to make an emergency landing but the plane hit some treetops on the way down and crashed to the ground. The crash occurred shortly after takeoff, and the pilot reportedly radioed the control tower with a request to make an emergency landing before he crashed.
The plane, a four-seat single engine light aircraft made by Piper, landed near some classrooms but there were no students present at the time due to the Passover break.
In March, two people were killed when a Cessna 172 plane crashed in an open field in the Galilee. Back in August, two were killed in an ultralight crash near Rehovot.