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Engine Failure Eyed in Piper Navajo Crash

11 killed when PA-31 goes down after takeoff.

Accident investigators in Poland are reviewing the maintenance logbooks of a 1976 Piper Navajo in which 11 people were killed and one was seriously injured when the parachute jump plane crashed shortly after takeoff on Saturday.

The pressurized PA-31P took off from an airfield in Czestochowa, Poland, with 11 jumpers and one pilot onboard. Weather at the time of the crash was good with a temperature of about 80 degrees F. The airport sits at an elevation of 862 feet.

A report by the Flight Safety Foundation said the Piper twin, registered to an owner in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and operated by the Omega Skydiving School, had a history of engine problems.

Eyewitnesses reportedly stated that the Navajo’s left engine quit just before the crash.

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