HELSINKI - An investigation into a small-plane crash that killed eight skydivers in Finland will take weeks or longer to complete because the charred remains of the aircraft are scattered over a large area of forest, authorities said Monday.
Two jumpers and the pilot aboard the Comp Air 8 kit aircraft parachuted to safety in Sunday’s crash, the head of the investigation, Ismo Aaltonen, said Monday. The three men were hospitalized with minor injuries, and it wasn’t immediately clear when they would be questioned about the crash.
Finnish MTV 3 television news reported that one of the survivors told investigators that something had “gone wrong” during the flight, but no details were given.
The turboprop plane, built from a kit manufactured by Titusville, Fla.-based Comp Air, was registered to carry a pilot and 10 passengers. It was licensed in 2009 and was last inspected in 2012, with the next check due in August 2015.
The eight victims, six men and two women, were ages 23-43. They were all experienced parachutists, Aaltonen said.
The small plane was on a regular skydiver flight in southwest Finland when it suddenly lost altitude and plunged to the ground from about 13,000 feet.
“The plane was badly burned and poses a huge challenge for us,” Aaltonen said. “It’ll take weeks to find out what happened - the sequence of events - but much longer to establish the actual cause of the accident. We could be talking a year before we can publish our conclusions.”
Transport Minister Henna Virkkunen said the crash could result in a review of aviation regulations because “several leisure aviation accidents in recent years had caused fatalities.”
Last year, seven people were killed in accidents involving small aircraft, including three members of a family whose seaplane crashed into a lake after takeoff.
In 2012, six people died in such accidents.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/22/2014