Four dead after German-registered plane from Austria crashes near Croatian coastal town of Medulin
A Beechcraft Bonanza that took off in Austria crashed near the Istrian town of Medulin on Thursday, killing all four people on board. Emergency crews are searching for two additional people.
What happened
A six-seat Beechcraft G36 Bonanza with German registration crashed near the Croatian coastal town of Medulin on Thursday morning. The aircraft had taken off from Austria and was approaching the Medulin sports airfield, located roughly 500 metres from the crash site, when it went down. Local police confirmed four fatalities, and emergency services continued searching for two more people in the Campanoz area outside the town.
Four people died in the crash.
Emergency response
The alert reached authorities around 11:20 local time. Seven firefighters with three vehicles, three emergency medical teams, a rescue helicopter, and police were dispatched to the scene. The regional emergency medicine institute told the news portal Index that the confirmed death toll stood at four, while the N1 broadcaster reported that searches for two other individuals were ongoing.
Witness accounts
Witnesses described the aircraft flying level before it suddenly entered a spiral and struck the ground. One witness told the Dnevnik portal that the plane had been flying beautifully and horizontally, then spiralled down and hit the earth without an explosion. Another local pilot, Nijaz Delić, who also uses the Medulin sports airfield, said the aircraft had flown there several times before and that the pilot was very experienced.
It flew here several times already. The pilot was very experienced. It is hard to say what exactly happened. It could have been a technical fault or a medical issue.
Investigation underway
The cause of the crash remains unknown. Investigators from the National Agency for the Investigation of Accidents in Air, Maritime and Railway Transport (AIN) were expected to arrive later on Thursday. Croatian media reported that the aircraft had not notified Croatian aeronautical authorities of its flight plan in advance. The Austrian Foreign Ministry confirmed to the APA news agency that it was in contact with Croatian authorities to determine the nationalities of the victims, which had not yet been released.
Location
Medulin sits at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, a few kilometres from Pula, and is part of one of Croatia's most popular summer tourist regions. The crash occurred in an uninhabited area near a landfill, on the border between the city of Pula and the municipality of Medulin.
