BEIRUT: A small training aircraft with three people onboard crashed on Thursday in Lebanon’s mountainous Keserwan district, north of the capital Beirut, aviation sources said.
Reports confirmed the pilot and two passengers were killed, the sources said.
Lebanese media reported that the two passengers, who carried the same family name, were believed to be siblings.
The Cessna 172 plane belonged to flight training firm Open Sky Aviation and had taken off from Beirut airport at 1.30 p.m. local time before crashing 20 minutes later in the village of Ghosta.
“It was very foggy in the area ... the airplane hit rocks above a house,” Ziad Maalouf, who was in the area and heard the crash, said.
“After hearing the bang we ran out and we saw the remains of people.”
Open Sky could not immediately be reached for comment.
The minister of public works was at the airport and an official statement was expected soon.
Lawmaker Farid Al Khazen who visited the crash area in Ghosta, told MTV channel: “This is a horrific accident in this area that is constantly visited because of its beautiful mountainous nature … today [Thursday] it was too foggy”

The Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that the plane took off from Beirut International Airport around 1.30pm and cruised toward Jounieh-Jbeil seaside area based on the preapproved route. The plane crashed around 1.50pm in Ghosta area after it veered off the preapproved route with two passengers and the pilot on board.
The Lebanese caretaker minister of public works and transport ordered an immediate investigation added the Authority’s statement.

(With Reuters)