A plane of multi-national peacekeeping force crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsular on Sunday, killing nine people on board, an official of Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) confirmed to Xinhua.

Multinational forces spokesman Normand St. Pierre said that as many as nine foreign peacekeepers, including up to eight French soldiers, were killed Sunday in the plane crash of a French transport aircraft belonging to the Sinai's peacekeeping force.

He said the crash took place between 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) and 10 a. m. (0700 GMT) in the middle of the vast Sinai Peninsula in northeastern Egypt.

The plane being flown by the MFO French contingent was on a training mission, with the nine passengers, including eight French soldiers and another foreign peacekeeper whose nationality is still being determined, on board, Pierre added.

Meanwhile, Egypt's official news agency MENA quoted spokesman for the Air Aviation Company Captain Ehab Mohiyeddin as saying that the plane crashed while en route from al-Gora airport to Saint Catherine airport.

It also quoted security source as saying that the crashed planed collided with a Jordanian truck along the Noubei-Suez highway.

The source added that the collision, caused the falling apart of the plane and scattering of its passengers in nearby mountainous areas.

The truck, loaded with glass, was also set ablaze, he said.

In search for the bodies, a number of aircraft are flying over the area in search, said a spokesman for the MFO.

The two pilots of the French plane earlier reported a technical failure in a radio message and attempted to make emergency landing before losing contact with the local al-Gora airport, according to airport sources.

They believed that a Canadian member of the multinational force was on board the ill-fated plane, which was not immediately confirmed by the Canadian embassy.

The peacekeeping force was deployed in Sinai with a task of monitoring the border between Egypt and Israel in the peninsular after a 1979 peace deal.

Source: Xinhua