By IANS
Lima : Five French tourists died when their small plane crashed in southern Peru, EFE news agency reported.
The plane had taken off from Maria Reiche airport in Nazca province Wednesday afternoon. A few minutes later it returned and crashed while trying to land.
The pilot of the plane was injured and taken to a local hospital, Canal N television reported.
The tourists had planned to fly over the Nazca lines near Ica on Peru’s southern coast.
The Nazca Lines are geoglyphs that can only be fully made out from the air because of their large size.
They were studied for decades by Maria Reiche, a German who ultimately disappeared without a trace, under the hypothesis that they formed a great lunar calendar.
Only a few small aviation firms visit the area and in recent months several small sightseeing planes had to make emergency landings along the Panamerican Highway.