A Cirrus SR22T crashed into the northern slope in the Fluhalp area above Leukerbad in Switzerland’s canton of Valais on Tuesday, killing all three people on board. Valais cantonal police, the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board and federal prosecutors have opened parallel investigations into the accident involving the single-engine light aircraft, which had flown from Lugano via Sion and was heading towards Buochs.
Emergency services reached the remote Alpine site with three helicopters and two rescue specialists after witnesses reported smoke in the area. Rescue crews confirmed that the three occupants had died, while formal identification of the victims was still under way in the latest reports. The cause of the crash remains unknown. The accident has drawn both safety and criminal scrutiny as investigators work to reconstruct the aircraft’s final flight path and determine what led it to strike the mountainside shortly after departure from Sion.