An Airbus A320-232 crashed off the coast of southern France during a post-maintenance flight Thursday, killing all seven people on board. The plane ZK-OJL had just been returned to Air New Zealand after flying for XL Airways (Germany) as D-AXLA. The flight was bound from/to Perpignan Airport (PGF/LFMP) (France). XL Airways said there were two flight crew from XL and 3-5 engineers on board.
The plane plunged into the Mediterranean sea 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) east of the French city of Perpignan, near the border with Spain, at around 4:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT), according to a communications officer at the headquarters of the government representative in the region.
This is the 18th loss of an Airbus A320.