A small plane heading toward Misrata on Libya’s coast to monitor migrant trafficking routes for the French government crashed soon after take off from Malta’s airport on Monday, killing all five French crewmembers.

The twin-prop Fairchild Metroliner banked to the right and slammed into the ground in a huge fireball soon after lifting off at 7:20AM (local time), according to video of the moment captured by a dashboard videocam and posted on Facebook.

Malta’s government said that all five victims were French. It is informed that the flight had been part of a French Customs surveillance operation tracing routes of illicit trafficking, both of humans and drugs, leaving Libya’s lawless coasts. Libya was the main point of departure for the tens of thousands of migrants who have been paying smugglers to bring them toward Europe by boat.

Earlier, authorities had said that flight was headed to Misrata; the government said later that the aircraft was due to return to Malta within a few hours without landing elsewhere.

Malta’s International Airport has been used for surveillance flights to Libya due to its proximity. The government said that the French Customs operation has been active for about five months.

According to a notice on the airport website, the airport was closed for four hours while debris was cleared, delaying more than a dozen flights.

The Metroliner had been registered in the United States and leased to a Luxembourg company, the government statement said.

By Prakriti Neogi