--- description: A small plane, sliding out of control after leaving an adjacent runway, struck a Polish woman on a skiing holiday in the French Alps. title: Plane Crashes into Skier in the French Alps image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # An Airplane Crashed into a Skier in the French Alps Almost Severing Her Hand by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2015 6:50 AM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2015 6:50 AM CUT What was supposed to be a relaxing excursion on the slopes of the French Alps turned into a near catastrophe when a small plane, sliding [out of control](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/plane-clips-skier-french-alps-emergency-landing-001908818.html "undefined") after leaving an adjacent runway, struck a Polish woman on a skiing holiday. The aircraft appeared suddenly from behind her without a sound, the local public prosecutor told Agence France-Presse. It skirted a group of children and slid under a chairlift. The woman, 55, did not hear the approaching plane and was hit by its propeller. She was seriously injured, and emergency services reported that she suffered a “near amputation.” > [](https://twitter.com/AFP/status/576187614262222848) The resort doctor was immediately on scene to provide medical care, and the woman was then taken by helicopter to the local hospital. The pilot was about to depart Avoriaz, a ski resort near France’s border with Switzerland, but failed to take off from the snowy high-altitude runway. Local prosecutor Patrick Steinmetz, whose office is investigating the incident, told AFP that the pilot was “a professional who is used to these kind of conditions.” \[[_AFP_](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/plane-clips-skier-french-alps-emergency-landing-001908818.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3743761/france-alps-skiing-alps-airplane-crash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3743761/france-alps-skiing-alps-airplane-crash/"},"headline":"An Airplane Crashed into a Skier in the French Alps Almost Severing Her Hand","datePublished":"2015-03-13T06:50:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:17:39.517Z","description":"The 55-year-old suffered a “near amputation”","url":"https://time.com/3743761/france-alps-skiing-alps-airplane-crash/","keywords":["Newsfeed","France","Sports topic","Aviation","Bizarre","Skiing","Poland"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3743761/france-alps-skiing-alps-airplane-crash/","name":"An Airplane Crashed into a Skier in the French Alps Almost Severing Her Hand"}}]}] ```