Light plane crash kills 4 in Sharon region
Two brothers, their friend, and pilot killed as Cessna plane crashes in Moshav Bazra's agricultural fields in Sharon region, catches fire upon impact; circumstances of crash still unclear. Eyewitness: Sight was horrific - body parts were scattered
Four people were killed Friday afternoon when a civilian Cessna plane crashed near Moshav Bazra in the Sharon region.
Rescue forces reported that the casualties included everyone on board – two brothers, their friend, and the woman piloting the plane. The passengers had hired the plane for a recreational flight.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) personnel arrived on the scene and immediately launched an investigation, which revealed that the Cessna 172 aircraft nosedived at a height of 300 meters and hit the ground at a 90 degree angle.
The investigation has not yet concluded whether the cause for the crash was a technical malfunction or human error.
Scene of the crash (Photo: Ido Erez)
At approximately 4:30 pm police and the Magen David Adom emergency services received a report of a plane that went down near Bazra. Rescue teams dispatched to the scene pronounced two people dead, and the bodies of two more people were located in the wreckage shortly thereafter.
The plane went down in an agricultural field situated between Route 4 and a row of homes in the Bazra community.
"I was driving along Route 4 and turned toward Bazra when I suddenly saw a small plane descending with its nose facing the ground, like a rock falling from the sky," eyewitness Ziv Levavi told Ynet.
"As far as I could tell there was no attempt at an emergency landing. There was a blast, and then a fire erupted, but it eventually died down on its own," he said. "I ran towards the plane to try and help, but the sight was horrific – there were body parts."
Another eyewitness, Yehuda Chen, was at his son's home in Bazra at the time of the crash. "We saw the plane coming in from the northwest at an altitude of about 120 feet; at some point it began to tilt upward, then we heard the propeller make a strange noise and the plane began to tilt downward," he told Ynet.
"I did not see the plane hit the ground, but we understood that it had crashed and immediately drove to the site. When we arrived we saw debris and body parts scattered all over the place."
Paramedic Daniel Rahamim was one of the first to arrive at the scene. "There was a lot of smoke. Body parts were scattered in and around the wreckage. There was nothing we could do to save those who were on board," he said.
On Wednesday an IAF flight instructor and his trainee cadet were killed when their aircraft crashed 30 minutes after taking off from the Tzeelim Air Force base in southern Israel on a routine exercise.
