Five die as light aircraft crashes in Portugal

LISBON: Five people died when a Swiss-registered light aircraft crashed into a supermarket warehouse in the Lisbon suburbs on Monday, rescue services said.

The fatalities comprised the pilot and all three passengers — a Swiss and three French nationals — who were aboard the aircraft, plus a man who was at the warehouse at the time, they said in a statement.

Three other people were slightly injured.

The warehouse, operated by the Lidl supermarket chain, is located about a kilometre (half a mile) from an aerodrome at Tires,



in the district of Cascais about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from central Lisbon.

The twin-engine Piper PA-31 plane had just taken off on a flight to the southern French city of Marseille when it crashed, hitting a truck parked at the warehouse.

About 90 firefighters mobilised to fight a blaze, which was quickly put out. A neighbouring house was also damaged.

The aerodrome issued a statement saying that the plane belonged to Symbios Orthopaedics, a company based near Lausanne, Switzerland that specialises in orthopaedic prosthetics.