13 Killed as Tourist Plane Crashes Near Peru’s Nazca Lines

A small tourist plane crashed on Saturday in southern Peru, killing all 13 people on board, authorities said.

The aircraft, operated by local airline Aerodiana, was carrying 11 foreign tourists and two crew members on a sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines archaeological site. It went down in the Pueblo Viejo area of the Nasca municipality, within the broader archaeological zone of the world-famous geoglyphs.

Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications confirmed the plane, a Cessna Caravan C-208, took off from Pisco Airport around 12:10 p.m. local time. About an hour later, the crew reported an emergency to the Nazca control tower before radio contact was lost. The aircraft subsequently crashed and caught fire, leaving no survivors.

Police Major Jorge Andrade said recovery efforts were underway at the scene, with four bodies retrieved in the initial hours. The passengers included tourists from Italy, Germany and Spain. The two crew members were Peruvian.

Authorities said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. The Nasca municipality expressed deep sorrow and offered condolences to the victims’ families.