Aerodiana’s tourist flight to the Nazca Lines crashed outside Nazca on Saturday, killing 13 people. The plane had taken off from Ica and was carrying visitors drawn to views that can only be seen from the sky or from viewing towers.
Seven Italian citizens, two Germans, and two Spaniards died, along with the pilot, Américo Salazar, and the co-pilot, Irenka Guanilo del Carpio. Luke Hylands, the son of Scott Hylands, posted that, “Myself and my family are still trying to process this horrible loss.”
Peru’s Transportation Ministry response
Peru’s Transportation Ministry ordered Aerodiana to suspend all flights until investigations are completed. Aerodiana had been offering flights to view the Nazca Lines for 14 years, making Saturday’s crash a sudden halt to a long-running tourist route.
The Peruvian government said the crew reported a mechanical failure before the aircraft lost radio contact. That sequence leaves the failure itself at the center of the investigation, because the key unresolved point is what broke first and how the emergency unfolded after contact ended.
Tourist route to Nazca
The Nazca Lines were etched into the desert hundreds of years ago by Peru’s Indigenous inhabitants and form images of animals. For visitors, the flight path has been the access point; for Aerodiana, the suspension now stops all flights while investigators examine the crash.
What remains to be answered is specific: what mechanical failure the crew reported, and whether it set off the loss of radio contact before the plane went down outside Nazca.
