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20 killed after vintage plane crashed in Swiss Alps

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BERN: All the 20 passengers and crew members of a vintage plane died after it crashed in the Swiss Alps on Saturday evening, the police said.

As per the CNN, a Junkers JU-52, which is a mid-century plane, crashed in the Piz Segnas mountain range, near the Austrian border. It was on a flight between Locarno in Switzerland, to Dübendorf, a suburb of Zurich.

All the 17 passengers and three crew members on board, aged between 42 and 84, died on the spot.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office, in collaboration with local Swiss authorities, is investigating the reason behind the cause of the crash. Following the incident, the operator JU-Air has suspended all flights until further notice.

The fully booked propeller plane, built in 1939 and retired by Switzerland's air force in 1981, was flying the passengers back to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich, from a two-day trip to the Italian-speaking Ticino region. It crashed shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday, less than 50 minutes after taking off from Locarno's Magadino airfield.

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