A Polish woman was seriously injured Thursday when she was hit by a plane careening down the slopes of Avoriaz in the French Alps. The ski-equipped Jodel single-prop plane failed to take off from a snowy high-altitude runway near the ski area, and the pilot was unable to stop the plane as it slid into resort bounds.

The plane skirted a group of children and slid under a chairlift before clipping a 55 year old Polish woman with its propeller, almost completely severing her hand. Emergency services reported that she suffered a “near amputation”.

“We only narrowly avoided a catastrophe,” said a firefighting source.

She was immediately attended to by a resort doctor before being airlifted to a local hospital for treatment. Albeit a senseless, tragic accident, it’s lucky no one was killed – the run was a beginner’s blue, and busy on a sunny Thursday afternoon.

The pilot, accompanied by one passenger, made a stopover in Avoriaz and was about to depart when the accident occurred. Local public prosecutor Patrick Steinmetz told AFP that the pilot was “a professional who is used to these kind of conditions.”