An Airbus A400M military transport plane crashed during testing near Seville, southern Spain, killing four people on board.
The aircraft was carrying six people and crashed in a field near to Seville’s San Pablo airport. The remaining two crew men are seriously injured and hospitalised.
Airbus said all crew members are Airbus Defence and Space employees of Spanish nationality.
The aircraft, which was on its first flight, was due for delivery to the Turkish customer in June this year.
The Spanish air-accident authority, or CIAIAC, has already initiated a probe into the cause of the crash and an Airbus dispatched a team of technical advisors to support the investigation.
Airbus chief executive Tom Enders was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying: "We will do all it takes to support the authorities in their investigation, which has just been launched."
According to plane-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft crashed after reaching a maximum altitude of 1,725ft.The CIAIAC investigation will depend on air-traffic control information to reconstruct what happened.
Meanwhile, in the wake of this accident, the UK Defence Ministry has temporarily suspended flights of two A400M transport planes.
In addition, the German and French Air Forces have taken similar decisions as a precautionary measure. Airbus has delivered 174 of the military cargo planes to eight countries so far.
Image: The first A400M during its fourth flight on 15 January 2010. Photo: courtesy of Benurs.
