TLDR
A sightseeing Cessna Grand Caravan carrying eleven foreign tourists and two Peruvian crew members came down near the Nazca Lines in southern Peru and killed everyone on board. The aircraft departed Pisco airport and lost contact shortly into the flight, crashing at Pueblo Viejo approximately six kilometres from Nazca city. Police Major Jorge Andrade confirmed no survivors, with four bodies recovered at the scene when he spoke. Peru's tourism ministry activated its tourist-protection network and offered support to the embassies of Italy, Germany and Spain, the countries whose nationals were among the dead.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
No survivors as sightseeing flight goes down in Peruvian desert
A tourist plane carrying eleven foreign sightseers and two Peruvian crew members crashed in the desert near the UNESCO-listed Nazca Lines on 1 August 2026, killing all thirteen people on board. The Cessna Grand Caravan departed the CAP FAP Renán Elías Olivera airport in Pisco bound for a sightseeing flight over the geoglyphs before losing contact and coming down at Pueblo Viejo, roughly six kilometres from Nazca city, at approximately 1.20 pm local time.[1]
Police Major Jorge Andrade, of the Nazca provincial police, said the toll was absolute. "We have information that 11 passengers and two crew members have died," Andrade said, adding that four bodies had been recovered from the wreckage at the time he spoke.[2]
Who was on board
The eleven foreign tourists comprised seven Italian nationals, two Germans and two Spaniards, a cross-section of European visitors who had arrived in one of Peru's most-visited heritage destinations.[1] The two Peruvian crew members were identified as pilot Americo Salazar Cuellar and copilot Irenka Del Carpio.
The cause of the crash remains unknown. Peruvian authorities have opened an investigation, and the Municipality of Nazca was clear about where accountability rests. "The investigation of the accident and the oversight of aviation operations are the responsibility of the competent authorities, who will determine the causes and assign liability in accordance with the law," the municipality said.[2]
Ministry activates tourist-protection network
Mincetur moved quickly to coordinate a government response, expressing deep sorrow over the deaths and activating its Red de Protección al Turista. IPERÚ personnel were deployed to the crash site to work alongside emergency authorities.[1]
Mincetur also offered direct support to the embassies of Italy, Germany and Spain to assist families and next of kin making contact from overseas.[1] The ministry released no further detail on the timeline of the recovery operation or the condition of the wreckage.
A heritage site built for overflight tourism
The Nazca Lines sit on an arid coastal plain in southern Peru covering some 450 square kilometres. The Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994, recognised for their outstanding universal value as one of the most extensive and best-preserved pre-Hispanic ritual landscapes on earth. The geoglyphs, including zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and geometric designs, were created between roughly 500 BC and AD 700 by removing surface stones to reveal the lighter subsoil beneath.
Because the figures are best appreciated from the air, low-altitude sightseeing flights have become the dominant way tourists experience them. That access model has also produced a recurring safety problem, with small aircraft operating in demanding desert conditions and aerodrome infrastructure remaining limited.
A pattern of fatal crashes at the same site
In February 2022, a Cessna 207 operated by Aero Santos crashed shortly after takeoff from the María Reiche Neuman aerodrome near Nazca, killing seven people and prompting Mincetur and IPERÚ to activate the same emergency response protocols used for overflight tours. The 1 August crash is the latest in a sequence of fatal accidents at the site.
Questions about oversight of commercial overflight operators in the region have circulated for years among aviation safety advocates and travel industry bodies. Thirteen deaths in a single incident, spanning three European nationalities, will sharpen pressure on Peruvian civil aviation authorities to account for what safeguards were in place.
The Municipality of Nazca, in its statement, signalled the formal investigation would address both causation and liability but drew no conclusions about the operator or the aircraft's airworthiness.[2] Mincetur confined its public remarks to the response operation and expressions of condolence, offering no detail on what is known about the aircraft's final minutes.
Mincetur has pledged support to the Italian, German and Spanish embassies in Lima to assist the families of the seven Italians, two Germans and two Spaniards killed in the crash.[1]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Caleb Reed covers breaking news and sport. He works to the rhythm of a story as it unfolds, and he is happiest when the facts arrive faster than anyone can spin them.
