Irish skydivers injured in plane crash in Canada

THREE IRISH students were injured when an aircraft crash-landed in a field during a skydiving exercise in Canada.

The students, who are believed to be from NUI Maynooth, were hurt when the twin-engined King Air plane crashed near Pitt Meadows Airport, east of Vancouver, on Sunday afternoon.

A pilot and seven skydivers were on board, three of them Irish.

The cause of the crash is not known, but an aircraft engine was seen by observers to fail before the pilot made a wheels-up landing in a blueberry field.

All eight people were taken to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment. One of the Irish passengers, a woman in her early 20s, suffered a broken pelvis.

The other two, a man and a woman, were treated for minor injuries and released. They flew back to Ireland yesterday.

The pilot, Ian Flanagan, who is also the owner of Pacific Skydivers, the company that organised the exhibition, said they were "very, very lucky" that nobody was seriously injured in the incident.

"There was a problem with the engine. We ended up having to do a forced 'belly-type' landing on a field near Pitt Meadows Airport," he said.

"Because we weren't landing on the runway, we made the decision to keep the wheels up because the plane would slide better on its belly."

The crash is being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Its spokesman Cpl Mike McCauley said: "My understanding is they had taken off, then there were some issues and they tried to get back."

The incident was overshadowed by another involving a small aircraft that crashed on northern Vancouver Island, killing five people, on the same day.