Pilot and co-pilot die in small plane crash at German steel plant

A small plane crashed on a factory site in northern Germany on Sunday, killing the pilot and the co-pilot, according to the police.

The aircraft had taken off from the airfield in Salzgitter-Drütte and crashed on the site of the Salzgitter steel plant after a short flight, a spokesman from the fire brigade said. Salzgitter AG is one of the biggest steel pruducers in Germany.

The exact cause of the crash was not initially clear, but a police spokesman emphasized that it was assumed to be an accident.

The plane crashed on a narrow strip between two halls and caught fire, the fire brigade's operations manager Arno Sicks said. He said only parts of the wings could be seen through the dense smoke, describing what remained as a "charred steel frame."

Sicks said around 90 emergency services staff attended the scene, located about 50 kilometres east of Hanover, and that paramedics pronounced the two men in the aircraft dead after the fire was extinguished.

A Salzgitter spokesman said only minor damage was caused to the company premises and production was not affected.

The federal investigation bureau for aircraft accidents in the nearby city of Braunschweig is investigating the cause of the crash.