Accompanied by one passenger, the pilot made a stopover in Avoriaz, close to the border with Switzerland, and was about to depart when the accident occurred.
The youngest squad in Spain, they were also the last to arrive for the finals, landing just three days before the clash with Hungary after a three day journey that included a stopover to play a friendly against a Brazilian club side.
A modern town has built up around the old settlement and there is plenty to see, making it an essential stopover on the way back to Argentina or Montevideo, Uruguay's picturesque capital.
Mr Schmidt was at Beijing's airport on a brief stopover following a controversial private visit he made to North Korea.
But Mr Mandela's condition aside, it seems this presidential visit has failed to generate interest in the way his 2009 stopover in Ghana drew ecstatic, hopeful crowds, or how First Lady Michelle Obama charmed Soweto, a sprawling black township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, two years later.
Gulliver is surprised it didn't happen sooner.Catching forty winks during an airport stopover can be a trying experience, so much so that many people myself included no longer make the effort.
Many passengers are Lodwar traders who get off at Eldoret, a stopover en route, making a 1,000km (620-mile) round-trip to stock up at their nearest supermarket.
Hamad will not only ease this pressure, but also bolster Qatar's ambition to become a genuine world aviation hub.To make this ambition a reality, airport authorities have striven to create an attractive place for long-haul passengers to make a stopover.
