Two planes carrying dozens of parachutists collided in midair Thursday over western Slovakia, killing seven people, officials said. Thirty-one others on board survived by jumping out with their parachutes.
The crash took place Thursday morning at 0720 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT) near the village of Cerveny Kamen. Rescue workers used helicopters to reach the forested crash site in the White Carpathians mountain range that forms the border with the Czech Republic.
The two Czech-made L-410 transport planes collided at an altitude of 1,500 meters (4,921 feet), said Juraj Denes, an official with the Slovak Air and Naval Investigations Bureau, a government agency that investigates plane crashes.