OREANDA-NEWS. A Fairchild Metroliner Mark III aircraft registered in the United States and leased to a Luxembourg company crashed soon after take-off from Malta International Airport at around 0720 CET.

Official information, footage and eyewitnesses, including three members of the Armed Forces of Malta at the nearby Safi Barracks, and two commercial airline pilots, clearly indicate that there was no explosion prior to impact. Several inquiries, as established by international rules and the Laws of Malta, are currently underway to establish all facts.

The remains of all five men on board, all French nationals, have been found.

The flight was part of a French Customs surveillance operation which has been taking place for the past five months, with the aim of tracing routes of illicit trafficking of all sorts, including human and drug trafficking amongst others. The said flight was registered with the Malta Air Traffic Services as a local flight and was to return to Malta within hours without landing in third countries.