Three people died Thursday when the tourist plane they were flying in crashed in bad weather in a field in France, local authorities said.

Three people died Thursday when the tourist plane they were flying in crashed in bad weather in a field in France, local authorities said.

All three people on board-a man, his sister and the pilot-died in the accident, which happened in the central Puy-de-Dome department.

According to an initial probe, the plane was coming from the Paris region.

"It would seem that these people were due to land at the airport of Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dome capital) where they were due to pick up two passengers to then go to Biarritz (in the southwest)," Alain Durand, a local prosecutor, stated.

He said preliminary information indicated that the plane may have encountered some difficulty as the pilot was switching from autopilot to manual steering, before landing.

The weather conditions were also very bad, with a low cloud ceiling, reduced visibility and a lot of rain, Durand added.

Debris from the aircraft was discovered scattered along a hundred square metres (1080 square feet) of land.