Skier hit by plane in the French Alps

Lyon: A Polish skier was seriously injured yesterday when she was hit by a light aircraft careering down the slopes of a resort in the French Alps. The ski-equipped single-propeller Jodel plane had failed to take off from the snowy high-altitude runway near the ski area at Avoriaz.

People gather around an airplane after it made an emergency landing on a ski slope in the French Alpine ski resort of Avoriaz. PIC/AFP

The pilot was unable to stop the plane, which slid down the slopes, narrowly missing a group of children and passing under a chairlift before clipping the woman and nearly severing her hand.

"We only narrowly avoided a catastrophe," said a firefighting source, who declined to be named. The 55-year-old woman was hit by the plane's propeller and suffered a "near amputation", according to emergency services.