Foreign minister says no indication of sabotage in military aircraft crash

Foreign minister George Vella has told MaltaToday there is no indication of sabotage in the tragic accident that saw a Fairchild Metroliner nosedive into a Maltese street, just minutes after taking to the air.

The crash occurred today Monday at 7:30am, after the turboprop aircraft, reportedly carrying five French army officers en route to Misrata, Libya, developed some form of engine trouble.

The EU border agency Frontex said the plane was not one of its aircraft and the EU’s high representative Federicha Mogherini has said the officers were not part of an EU mission.

Army officers on the scene of the plane crash in Safi. Photo: Tonio Magro

The aircraft crash-landed on the road between Safi and Kirkop, right outside the MIA runway. The airplane was seen rising in the air and then nosediving back into the ground. The explosion was caught in dramatic footage by a motorist’s dashcam.

The Fairchild Metroliner, registration number N577MX, was registered to Canda-based CAE Aviation, a major civil and defence contractor offering aircraft simulation and training to civilian clients as well as many defence and security agencies, including all US services.

Malta International Airpot has reopened its runway for flights to depart.

The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurised, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild. This type of aircraft has been involved in 22 other crash incidents, the one before the Malta accident being on 2 June, 2014 when a Aeronaves TSM Fairchild (Swearingen) SA226TC Metro II, registration XA-UKP, crashed shortly after take-off from Querétaro international airport, Querétaro State, Mexico.