Swedish police said Friday that all nine people aboard a small aircraft used for skydiving that crashed near an airport in Sweden a day earlier had died. The small propeller plane, carrying eight skydivers and its pilot, crashed shortly after 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Thursday, as it was taking off from Orebro airport, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Stockholm.
“It’s a very severe accident,” Swedish police said on their website. “Everyone on board the crashed plane has died.” Initially, police had only referred to “multiple” deaths and said that one person had been taken to hospital with serious injuries. According to local media, the plane was a DHC-2 Beaver, which the local skydiving club had rented to use for a summer event. “Normally, most skydiving is done on the weekends, but now they had rented a plane to jump more intensely during the whole week,” Anna Oscarsson, head of communications for the Swedish Skydiving Association, told broadcaster SVT. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven offered his condolences. “It is with great sadness and sorrow that I have received the tragic information about the plane crash in Orebro,” he tweeted. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones in this very difficult time.”
