COPENHAGEN: A small plane carrying skydivers crashed outside the Swedish town of Orebro on Thursday night, killing nine people, police said.
The dead included the pilot and eight passengers, police said.
Spokesperson Carl-Johan Linde of the Swedish Maritime Administration, which oversees air traffic, told broadcaster SVT the crash must have occurred “in connection” with the plane's takeoff.
The Swedish Accident Investigation Authority dispatched a team to the the accident site outside Orebro, which sits 164 kilometers (102 miles) west of Stockholm.
The Dagens Nyheter newspaper identified the plane as a single-engine, propeller-driven De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven wrote on Twitter that it was “with great sadness and dismay” that he heard about the crash, and he expressed his “deepest sympathy.”
No further details were available. Police scheduled a news conference for Friday.