To improve the performance of our website, show the most relevant news products and targeted advertising, we collect technical impersonal information about you, including through the tools of our partners. You can find a detailed description of how we use your data in our Privacy Policy. For a detailed description of the technologies, please see the Cookie and Automatic Logging Policy. By clicking on the "Accept & Close" button, you provide your explicit consent to the processing of your data to achieve the above goal. You can withdraw your consent using the method specified in the Privacy Policy.<doc-sep>All 20 passengers and crew were killed when a vintage propeller-driven plane has crashed into a mountain in Switzerland, just hours after another Alps crash killed a family of four. The 79-year old plane, a Junkers JU-52, crashed above the ski resort of Flims on the 3,000m tall mountain of Piz Segnas on Saturday evening. There were nine women and 11 men on board, aged between 42 and 84. The 17 passengers and three crew members were mainly Swiss nationals, as well as an Austrian couple and their son. Their names have not yet been released. The flight was returning from a trip to the country’s Ticino region when it crashed, about 50 minutes after taking off. Parts of the area, a glacier popular with skiiers and hikers, were closed to the public with officials saying recovery work would take a few days. Police said uncovering what had happened would be “relatively complex”, as there was no distress call from the pilots before the crash and it had no “black box” – the crash-resistant flight recorders on modern planes. “We can assume that the aircraft hit the ground near-vertically and at relatively high speed,” Daniel Knecht of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board said at a news conference in Flims. Photos released by Graubünden canton police show only the tail section remains in-tact. There were no signs of it breaking up or being in flames before the crash, and Mr Knecht said it does not appear to have collided with another aircraft or wire or obstacle, and there is no suspicion of foul play at present. He also discounted the plane’s age as a factor, saying: “Older planes, if they are correctly maintained, can be operated safely.” The plane had been kept from being decommissioned after a national fundraising campaign and was operated by a small Swiss company, Ju-Air, which offers “adventure flights” exploring the mountains in vintage aircraft. Both pilots, aged 62 and 63, had many hours practice on the JU-52 and had worked as Swiss military and airline pilots. 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A ll twenty people on board died when a vintage plane crashed in the Swiss Alps, authorities have confirmed. The plane which came down in Switzerland was a vintage Junker JU-52 HB-HOT which saw use as both an airliner and freighter when in operation during and after the second world war. The plane was travelling from Locarno to Dubendorf in Switzerland with 17 passengers and three crew on board. Most of the victims were Swiss but they also included a couple and their son from Austria. Authorities said there were no survivors after the plane crashed in the Swiss Alps / REUTERS The victims were aged between 42 and 84. A rescue operation was launched after the crash yesterday but police today confirmed there had been no survivors. The flight's operator Ju-Air confirmed the crash, writing online: "Accident 4th August 2018: We have the sad duty to announce that one of our Ju-52 aircraft had a accident today." Swiss officials expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be "relatively complex" / REUTERS Swiss officials said they are not aware of any distress call from the plane. They also expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be "relatively complex". Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed in the crash. The victims were all aged between 42 and 84 / EPA Mr Knecht said the vintage plane presumably did not have the crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have. He said officials have essentially ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire. He also said there is no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash. The plane crashed in the Swiss Alps, killing everyone on board / EPA Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germany's Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952. Ju-Air's Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.