A small tourist plane crashed on August 1 while flying over the Nazca Lines archaeological site in southern Peru, killing all 13 people on board, local authorities confirmed.
The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, operated by Peruvian airline Aerodiana, departed from Pisco Airport at approximately 12:10 p.m. local time carrying 11 foreign tourists and two crew members. The crew reported an emergency to the Nazca control tower shortly after 1:00 p.m., after which all radio contact was lost.
The aircraft crashed near the town of Socos, roughly 6 kilometers from the city of Nazca and about 19 kilometers from the Nazca Lines site. Among the dead were seven Italian nationals aged 18 to 54, two 52-year-old Spaniards, and two Germans aged 77 and 78. The pilot and copilot, identified as Americo Salazar and Irenka Guanilo del Carpio, were also killed.
President Keiko Fujimori, inaugurated just days earlier on July 28, expressed regret over the accident and said her government was considering a temporary suspension of the Pisco airport while awaiting reports from the transportation and tourism ministries.
The Nazca Lines, enormous geoglyphs etched into the desert dating back to between 500 BC and 500 AD, attract approximately 100,000 visitors annually. Most tourists view the site from small aircraft, and dozens of planes operate from the Pisco Airport to handle the demand.
The crash is not the first fatal incident near the site. Seven people were killed in a 2022 crash, and in 2010, four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members died when an AirNasca plane went down after a sightseeing flight. The recurring accidents have raised renewed concerns about aerial tourism safety regulations in the region.
Strong winds on the day of the crash had already forced other small aircraft to divert to the Marcona Airport, according to local media reports, though investigators have not yet determined whether weather played a role in the Aerodiana crash.
Sources: Reuters, Associated Press
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