Paris ? An Airbus A320 passenger plane crashed off France’s southern coast during a maintenance flight Thursday, killing two people and leaving the five others on board missing, authorities said.

The airplane had undergone checks at the EAS Industries aircraft maintenance center in the French city of Perpignan, near the border with Spain. It was being leased by German charter airline XL Airways and was due to return to service for Air New Zealand next month, officials from those companies said.

The jet plunged into the Mediterranean as it was approaching the Perpignan airport, from which it had taken off an hour earlier, France’s civil aviation accident investigation bureau said.