Foggy Luxembourg Crash Kills 17

A twin-engine plane crashed in fog as it approached Luxembourg's airport Wednesday, killing 17 people and seriously injuring five others aboard, police said.

The Luxair turboprop Fokker-50, on a flight from Berlin's Tempelhof airport, had 19 passengers and three crew members aboard when it crashed in a farmer's field near the village of Roodt-Syr — just six miles short of Findel airport.

"We have 17 fatalities. One of the survivors who got out, died when arriving at hospital," said police spokesman Vic Reuter. Rescuer worked for three hours to free the injured pilot trapped in the cockpit. A Luxair official said he was eventually taken to hospital, but his condition was not known.

"This is a true nightmare for all concerned," said Luxair chief Christian Heinzmann.

Luxembourg Transport Minister Henri Grethen said he expected most casualties to be Germans traveling to the Grand Duchy. The control tower had received no distress signals before it lost contact with the plane, he said.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker rushed to the scene.

There was a huge rip in the side of the plane, which had been in service since 1991.

The plane crashed five minutes before its scheduled landing. Findel airport was immediately closed and incoming planes were diverted to airports in Germany and Belgium.

The Roodt-Syr area where the plane crashed is a region of gently rolling hills, woods and farmland. Early morning fog is common in November.

It was the second major plane accident in two decades in Luxembourg, a tiny nation of 380,000 shoehorned between Germany, Belgium and France.

On Sept. 29, 1982, 10 people were killed when an Soviet-made IL-62 skidded off a runway at Luxembourg's airport and crashed into a grove of trees.

By Constance Brand