A skydiving trip turned into a horror scene in France after a small plane carrying students and instructors crashed just moments after takeoff, killing all 11 people onboard.

The aircraft went down around 11 a.m. local time on Sunday, June 28, shortly after leaving the Essey-lès-Nancy airfield near Tomblaine, a suburb in northeastern France.

Officials said everyone on the plane died in the crash. The victims included five skydiving students, five instructors and the pilot.

Even more chilling, authorities said the plane crashed dangerously close to a residential area — narrowly avoiding what could have been an even bigger disaster.

“The death toll is 11 at this stage; there are no collateral victims,” regional prefect Yves Séguy said, according to reports. “Give or take a few meters and the accident could have caused collateral casualties.”

Séguy said early information suggests the aircraft suffered some kind of malfunction before it dropped from the sky.

“The plane fell vertically, and we don’t know the cause of the accident,” he said during a press conference, according to Ouest France. “There was no trajectory associated with an emergency landing.”

The prefect added that officials were relieved no one on the ground was killed.

“We are fortunate that there were no additional casualties,” he said.

The plane reportedly came down near a bike path close to homes. Local officials quickly urged the public to stay away from the area so emergency crews and police could reach the wreckage.

The aircraft was identified in reports as a German-registered Pilatus plane that belonged to a parachuting school.

According to L’Est Républicain, the five skydiving students were independent nurses who had traveled from the nearby city of Nancy to Tomblaine for the jump. Their names have not yet been released.

Tomblaine Mayor Hervé Feron said the community was stunned by the scale of the tragedy.

“I don’t remember a tragedy of this magnitude,” Feron said, according to L’Est Républicain. “The plane was taking off when it suddenly crashed. At the moment, there is no explanation for the accident.”

He said the crash caused no damage to homes or nearby residents, but the emotional toll on the town was overwhelming.

“The City of Tomblaine is providing a room at a secret location to accommodate the victims’ families,” Feron said.

He added that another room was being made available for loved ones to gather and pay their respects.

The Meurthe-et-Moselle prefect said officials activated an emergency operations center as police, firefighters and investigators responded to the scene.

Local police also warned residents to avoid Rue Salvador Allende, asking people not to crowd the crash site and to give emergency vehicles room to pass.

Investigators are now working to determine exactly what caused the plane to fail so soon after takeoff.

For now, the quiet French suburb is left reeling from a skydiving excursion that ended in catastrophe before anyone even had the chance to jump.