An Airbus A400M military transport plane crashed in a field in Seville yesterday, killing four of the six on board, a government official said, in the first accident involving Europe’s newest troop and heavy cargo carrier.
The plane was on a test flight when it crashed 1.6 km north of Seville’s San Pablo airport, emergency services said. Six people were on board; four died on impact and two others were seriously injured, a government spokeswoman said.
The plane crashed into an electricity pylon while attempting an emergency landing and caused a power cut in a nearby neighbourhood, El Mundo newspaper said, citing an eyewitness.
An Airbus spokesman and a government spokeswoman declined to comment on the cause of the crash, a fresh blow to Europe’s largest defence project which had to be bailed out by European governments in 2010 after delays and cost overruns.
The plane crashed into an electricity pylon while attempting an emergency landing
Airbus said the transport plane, which is assembled in Seville, had been ordered by Turkey, and that the company had sent a team to the crash site.
Media images showed a plume of black smoke rising from the crash site and fire-fighters spraying the smouldering wreckage. Hardly anything was left of the plane, which left black scorched earth in its wake, a Reuters eyewitness said. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier told reporters while on the campaign trail for local elections that it seemed all those on board were Spanish Airbus employees. He cancelled his political rallies for the day.
The Spanish government has also sent a team to investigate the crash, a government source said. Web tracking data indicated that the aircraft had wheeled round to the left before crashing north of the airport.
A person familiar with the matter said the aircraft had been conducting its maiden flight as part of a pre-delivery schedule. The A400M Atlas was developed for Spain and six other European Nato nations – Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Turkey – at a cost of €20 billion.