A cargo plane crashed into a lake in southern France. The Boeing 737 machine shot over the runway in Montpellier before dawn on Saturday and came to a stop in reeds and grass on the shore of a lake bordering the airport, regional authorities said. The nose of the plane had gotten into the water.
The three crew members of the Boeing 737 of the West Atlantic air freight company were unharmed in the accident early on Saturday morning. “They were freed and taken to safety thanks to the rapid intervention of the emergency services,” the prefecture said. After the accident, 60 firefighters and other emergency services were deployed at the airport.
The authorities set up a crisis team. A special company is now supposed to lift the plane out of Lake Mauguio, as the prefecture decided after consulting West Atlantic, Boeing, the French air traffic control authority DGAC and other experts. The “complex maneuver” should therefore begin on Sunday.
As the authorities of the Hérault department announced on Saturday evening, passenger and cargo planes cannot land in Montpellier for safety reasons. According to the airport administration, the airport must remain closed until the rescue work has been completed and the runway has been thoroughly checked.
42 planes were supposed to take off and land in Montpellier on Saturday, including 21 passenger planes. The airport on the French Mediterranean coast, which handles up to 197,000 passengers a month in the high season, is actually considered safe. A West Atlantic plane loaded with airmail lands in Montpellier every night at 2.45am.
