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Double tragedy after deadly plane and car crash near Frankfurt

A plane crashed in Germany on Sunday killing three people, police said. One of Russia's richest women was identified by the company she co-owns as among the victims.

Double tragedy after deadly plane and car crash near Frankfurt
Three people died after a small aircraft crashed near an airfield in Egelsbach in southern Hesse. Photo: DPA

Meanwhile, there was double tragedy as a police car travelling to the scene of the fallen plane collided with an other vehicle, killing the two people inside and seriously injuring three police officers, DPA reported.

Natalia Fileva, a co-owner of private Russian airline S7, died in the plane accident, the company said in a statement.

The air crash involved a six-seater aircraft travelling from France to the town of Egelsbach south of Frankfurt, Hesse, which went down in a field at around 2.30pm police said.

A second passenger, also believed to be Russian, and the pilot were also killed.

Fileva, whose husband is S7 CEO Vladislav Filev, was listed in 2018 by Forbes magazine as the fourth richest woman in Russia with an estimated fortune of $600 million.

“On March 31st, 2019, S7 Airlines shareholder Natalia Fileva was killed at the age of 55 during the descent in a private Epic-LT plane to (a) Frankfurt airport. The cause of the tragedy is not yet known,” the company said in a statement.

“After impact, the aircraft was completely burnt out,” police said.

The police statement said the passengers would probably only be positively identified in the coming week.

Car crash nearby

Only a few kilometres away from the crash site, two people died in a collision between a police car and another vehicle. According to a police spokesman in Offenbach on Sunday, the three occupants of the patrol car were seriously injured. The two people in the other car died.

A car destroyed in the crash in Langen, Hesse. Two passengers died in the car and the three policemen were seriously injured. Photo: DPA

According to initial investigations, the police officers were on their way to the crash site of the plane. The car had apparently skidded and crashed head-on with the police vehicle during an overtaking manoeuvre, according to a police spokesman, reported Welt.

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RYANAIR

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over ‘fake bomb threat’

Polish police said Monday they were investigating a fake bomb threat that forced a Ryanair passenger plane travelling from Dublin to Krakow to make an emergency landing in Berlin.

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over 'fake bomb threat'
A Ryanair flight making an emergency landing

The flight from Dublin to Krakow made the unexpected diversion after a reported bomb threat, German newspaper Bild Zeitung said.

“We were notified by the Krakow airport that an airport employee received a phone call saying an explosive device had been planted on the plane,” said regional police spokesman, Sebastian Glen.

“German police checked and there was no device, no bomb threat at all. So we know this was a false alarm,” he told AFP on Monday.

“The perpetrator has not been detained, but we are doing everything possible to establish their identity,” Glen added, saying the person faces eight years in prison.

With 160 people on board, the flight arrived at the Berlin Brandenburg airport shortly after 8 pm Sunday, remaining on the tarmac into early Monday morning.

A Berlin police spokesperson said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The passengers will resume their journey to Poland on board a spare aeroplane,” she told AFP, without giving more precise details for the alert.

The flight was emptied with the baggage also searched and checked with sniffer dogs, German media reported.

The passengers were not able to continue their journey until early Monday morning shortly before 4:00 am. The federal police had previously classified the situation as harmless. The Brandenburg police are now investigating the case.

Police said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The Ryanair plane that made an emergency landed reported an air emergency and was therefore immediately given a landing permit at BER,” airport spokesman Jan-Peter Haack told Bild.

“The aircraft is currently in a safe position,” a spokeswoman for the police told the newspaper.

The incident comes a week after a Ryanair flight was forced to divert to Belarus, with a passenger — a dissident journalist — arrested on arrival.

And in July last year, another Ryanair plane from Dublin to Krakow was forced to make an emergency landing in London after a false bomb threat.

READ ALSO: Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing

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