A small plane carrying tourists to view Peru’s famed Nazca Lines crashed and burst into flames Saturday afternoon, killing all 13 people on board, authorities said.
The aircraft went down in an agricultural field near the town of Pueblo Viejo, about four miles from the city of Nazca, shortly after 1 p.m. local time. Police said there were no survivors.
Eleven passengers and two crew members were aboard the plane when it crashed, Police Major Jorge Andrade said at the scene.
What We Know So Far
The aircraft was a Cessna Grand Caravan operated by the Peruvian sightseeing company Aerodiana, according to Nazca’s municipal government. The plane had been flying tourists over the Nazca Lines, a series of enormous figures etched into the desert by Peru’s Indigenous inhabitants hundreds of years ago.
Officials gave differing accounts of where the flight originated. Nazca’s police and several news outlets said the plane departed from Pisco Airport, while Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism and Nazca’s municipal government said it left from the nearby city of Ica. Local authorities have not resolved the discrepancy.
Peru’s state news agency Andina reported that the passengers included two tourists from Germany, two from Spain and seven from Italy, along with the two crew members. Firefighter Cesar Martinez said the bodies recovered from the wreckage were badly burned.
Local outlet RPP reported that the plane lost contact with air traffic control minutes after takeoff. Officials with Peru’s civil aviation authority said the crash site was sealed off and that investigators from Lima were being sent to examine the wreckage.
Aerodiana says on its website that it has offered scenic flights over the Nazca Lines for 14 years. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What Authorities Are Saying
Andrade told reporters at the scene that the crash left no survivors given its severity. He said four bodies had been recovered as of Saturday afternoon, with recovery efforts continuing.
Nazca’s municipal government confirmed the death toll in a statement and said the cause of the crash remained under investigation. Peru’s tourism ministry said all 11 passengers were foreign visitors, while officials have not yet released the identities of those killed.
Why This Matters
The Nazca Lines are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for their scale and cultural significance since their designation. UNESCO describes the geoglyphs, which include depictions of monkeys, hummingbirds and other animals alongside geometric shapes, as one of archaeology’s enduring mysteries because of their size and number.
Because the figures span distances too great to make out from the ground, tour flights like Saturday’s have become the primary way visitors experience the site. Peru drew more than 4.1 million international visitors in 2025, according to the country’s tourism ministry, with the Nazca Lines ranking among its most visited attractions alongside Machu Picchu and the archaeological sites of Cusco.
Saturday’s crash was not the first involving a sightseeing flight over the Lines. A 2022 crash killed seven people, including two Chilean and three Dutch nationals. A separate crash in 2010 killed four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members. The recurrence of fatal incidents is likely to renew scrutiny of safety oversight for the small aircraft operators that run scenic flights over the site, several of which rely on aging single engine planes to reach the remote viewing routes.
What Happens Next
Peruvian investigators are expected to examine the wreckage and flight data to determine what caused the plane to lose contact with air traffic control shortly after takeoff. Authorities have not given a timeline for the investigation’s conclusion.
Officials have not said whether Saturday’s crash will prompt new safety reviews of tour operators flying over the Nazca Lines. Aerodiana’s fleet and safety record are likely to face renewed attention as the inquiry proceeds, and further details on the victims are expected to be released once families have been notified.
Reporting drawn from NBC News, Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, Deutsche Welle and Peru’s state news agency Andina, citing Peru’s National Police, Nazca’s municipal government, Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism and Peru’s civil aviation authority.
