By Chester Seaton, News

14/4- The Triumvirate is reeling today at the news that the test flight for the Heisenberg, proposed to be the world’s first commercial fixed wing aircraft, crashed into the Crowndonian countryside outside of Toring.

The aircraft launched at 1830 on the night of the twelfth. The takeoff was flawless, according to onlookers and technicians on the ground. The aircraft flew for nearly two miles before radio reports came in stating that they had lost an engine. This matches up with observers placed along the plane’s flight path, who reported seeing a plume of black smoke coming from two of the starboard engines. The plane crashed shortly thereafter and exploded. The flaming wreckage then rolled unimpeded through the fields, leaving behind it a four mile long scar in the earth. A farm was crushed and two cows were killed.

The toll taken by the crash, both economically and in human life, is said to be astronomical. None of the aircraft’s reported one hundred and twenty passengers and crew are said to have survived. Among the dead are playwright Delando, who was scheduled to make a rare public appearance at the re-opening of the Empress Theatre later this week, colonial industrialist Archibald Starkfeld, and none other than the Empress of NorEaster herself, Her Imperial Majesty Marcellete Bastian.

After the crash, the Crowndon ruling body immediately released an apology and condolences to the people of NorEaster. NorEaster has yet to respond.

The crash has called into the question the future use of fixed wing aircraft for commercial purposes, and Samson Davies, long known as a detractor for such aircraft, is said to be demanding the right to fully investigate the incident along with the Crowndonian Authorities.