PARIS - A Moroccan family of five returning home died Saturday when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport near the French Alps, officials said.

The twin-engine plane hit a hill and crashed in a forest in an uninhabited area outside Grenoble, a city that is the gateway to the Alpine resorts in southeastern France.

Bruno Charlot, a local government official, said all five aboard died. The pilot was flying his wife and their three children home to Morocco, apparently after a vacation in France.

The plane took off Saturday afternoon from Grenoble's airport and quickly disappeared off the radar. Charlot said the weather was clear, and an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the crash.

The crash caused a small fire that extinguished itself even before responders arrived on the scene. No one was hurt on the ground.

© Copyright 2013