The 59-year-old pilot was killed in the crash of a glider near Bad Wildungen in northern Hesse on Thursday afternoon. The accident occurred shortly after 13 p.m., police said. According to witnesses, the plane crashed shortly after take-off from the Bad Wildungen airfield (Waldeck-Frankenberg district) from a height of around 100 meters on a field, police in Kassel said.
The pilot could only be recovered dead. The plane was a total loss. Further details were not initially available. According to the police, the Korbach Criminal Investigation Department, the Kassel Public Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigations (BFU) have taken up the investigation into the cause of the accident.