The plane crashed into the lake close to the Vevey shoreline.
Keystone-SDA
A small two-seater plane crashed into Lake Geneva near Vevey on Tuesday afternoon. The two people on board were able to escape from the submerged aircraft without any injuries. Their plane sank to the bottom of the lake.
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“The accident took place at around 4pm off the Pichette beach in Corseaux,” a spokesperson for the Vaud cantonal police told Keystone-ATS, confirming an earlier report in the 20 Minutes newspaper. The police are unclear exactly why the plane crashed into the lake near Vevey in western Switzerland.
In a reader’s video published on the 20 Minutes website, the aircraft can be seen attempting to approach the lake and land on the water, before tipping forward and turning over on contact with the water.
Identity not yet known
The police confirmed that the aircraft was a small two-seater plane. The two people on board were able to get out of the aircraft and then board a private boat that came to rescue them, the spokesperson added. They were not injured.
The aircraft sank quickly to the bottom of the lake and will have to be extracted. Measures have been taken to deal with any pollution, the police added.
As this was a civil aviation accident, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland will be in charge of an investigation. Further information will be released on Wednesday, including the identity of the passengers and the origin of the passenger plane.
Adapted from French by DeepL/sb
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