Plane crash victims included surgeon who operated on footballers including Robert Pirès
ACCLAIMED French surgeon Jean-Pierre Franceschi and his wife Nathalie were among the four people who died when their plane crashed near a Lidl supermarket in Portugal yesterday.
Onlookers watch smoke rise from site of plane crash in Portugal
The 64-year-old knee specialist had operated on several footballers including former Arsenal star Robert Pirès, retired French international Eric Di Meco, and 1991 Ballon d'Or winner Jean-Pierre Papin.
The father-of-two, a knee specialist, was returning to his home city of Marseille when the Piper eight-seater plane he was on crashed over the town of Tires near Lisbon just after midday.
It hit a lorry unloading outside the supermarket, engulfing the truck in flames and killing the unnamed driver, as well as grazing a block of flats.
When the plane fell, the wing damaged my house
The pilot was 69-year-old Swiss millionaire Jean Ple, the director of leading prothesis firm Symbios Orthopaedics.
Four people were taken to hospital suffering smoke inhalation and nine people living in flats near the scene of the tragedy have had to find alternative accommodation because of damage to their properties.
Maria de Fatima, one of the locals on the ground whose home was damaged and needed hospital treatment, said: "When the plane fell, the wing damaged my house. It caught fire and I fled with my two-year-old grandson."
Mrs de Fatima's cousin Elisabete Fortuna said: "It was a miracle more people weren't killed."
The investigation into the accident was continuing today.
The plane had only just taken off from the nearby Cascais Aerodrome when it came down without warning.
Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited the scene of the accident at lunchtime yesterday but left without making any comment.
Mr Franceschi received the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, in 2012 in recognition of his 40-year career.
Friend and Marseille-based surgeon Abdou Sbihi said: "He was the most humane person I know.
Scene where plane crashed into supermarket car park in Portugal
"He has cared for some of the greatest stars of football without ever looking for glory."
Pirès, voted in July 2008, as the sixth greatest player in the club's history by Arsenal fans, was ruled out of playing in the 2002 World Cup with France after suffering a cruciate ligament injury in an FA Cup match against Newcastle United.
He damaged the cruciate ligament in his left knee in a friendly against Cadiz in August 2006 while playing for Spanish side Villarreal and ended up having surgery which kept him out of action for seven months.