Small plane crash in western Germany kills 4

Fire workers stand in front of a burnt-out wreckage of a twin-engine business jet on the premises of a dump near Rivenich, Germany, on January 12, 2014. According to the fire department, all four occupants were killed. The machine was supposed to land at the nearby airfield Foehren, but touched a pylon in the dense mist. AFP

BERLIN – A small jet crashed in thick fog near an airfield in western Germany on Sunday, killing four people, police said.

The Cessna Citation plane had taken off from southern England. It was approaching the Foehren airfield, near the city of Trier, when it clipped an electricity mast on the Koblenz-Trier railway line.

The aircraft crashed shortly afterward near a landfill site and burst into flames.

Police in Trier said all four people aboard were killed — a 61-year-old businessman from the region and his 60-year-old wife, along with the pilot and co-pilot, who weren’t immediately identified.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.