1973 Nantes mid-air collision

The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two airliners travelling to London Heathrow airport hit each other over Nantes, France on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca to London and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid to London. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.[2]

Iberia Flight 504
Spantax Flight 400
Accident
Date5 March 1973
SummaryMid-air collision caused by ATC error
SiteNantes, France
Total fatalities68
Total survivors107
First aircraft

An Iberia DC-9-32, sister aircraft to the one involved
TypeMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 [1]
OperatorIberia
RegistrationEC-BII
Flight originPalma de Mallorca Airport
DestinationLondon Heathrow Airport
London, United Kingdom
Occupants68
Passengers61
Crew7
Fatalities68
Survivors0
Second aircraft

A Spantax CV-990 similar to the one involved in the accident
TypeConvair 990 Coronado[2]
OperatorSpantax
RegistrationEC-BJC
Flight originMadrid-Barajas Airport
DestinationLondon Heathrow Airport
London, United Kingdom
Occupants107
Passengers99
Crew8
Fatalities0
Injuries0
Survivors107

Crash

Iberia flight 504, a scheduled service from Palma de Mallorca, and Spantax flight BX400, a charter flight from Madrid, were both traversing France en route to Heathrow airport in London. They were guided by French military Air Traffic Control as the country's civilian air traffic controllers were on strike.[3] The Iberia DC9 was due to reach the Nantes VOR point at 12:52 at flight level 290 (29,000 feet) and the Spantax Convair CV-990 was scheduled to reach it at 13:00 at the same level. Both aircraft had received instructions from Marina sector Air Traffic Control at the French Air Force base in Mont-de-Marsan, who asked them to contact Menhir sector ATC at the French Air Force base in Brest. The Spantax aircraft was on the boundary between the sectors and had difficulty hearing Marina ATC, also receiving no reply to two requests to circle to avoid arriving at the Nantes VOR before 13:00 GMT. The crew decided to start the manoeuvre without ATC authorisation and while in cloud collided with the Iberia DC-9 at 12:52 GMT. The DC-9 lost control, exploded, and broke up in mid-air before crashing to the ground.[3]

The CV-990 managed to land at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base with damage to its left wing.[4] A survivor, Betty Barrett, later recounted:

My father was sitting in the aisle seat, and I was sighting on the right hand side. And I turned around, and he's very British and very stoic, and I said "daddy do you think we are going to make it?". He said "I rather doubt it darling" and pointed to the other wing.[5]

It was later determined that the wing of the CV-990 was so badly damaged that the aircraft would have been unrecoverable if one more metre of the wing surface had been lost, and would have likely also exploded.[5]

All 61 passengers and 7 crew of the Iberia flight were killed, including Michael Jeffery, the former manager of Jimi Hendrix.[6] 47 of the dead were British citizens.[3] No-one aboard the Spantax flight was harmed.

Report

The accident was investigated by French air accident body, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile. Its report identified difficulties in communication between the flight crew of the Convair CV-990 and air traffic control as well as procedural errors from both parties. The crew's unilateral decision to turn the aircraft brought it into the path of the DC-9. ATC had assumed a time-based separation of the two aircraft at the same flight level.

The event is briefly mentioned in the MSNBC/The Weather Channel documentary series Why Planes Crash, during the first season episode "Collision Course". The episode features an interview with survivor Betty Barrett and shows images of the damaged CV-990 on landing.[5]

See also

References
  1. "EC-BII Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 - cn 47077 / ln 148 - Planespotters.net Just Aviation". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. "ASN Aircraft accident Convair CV-990-30A-5 Coronado EC-BJC La Plance, near Nantes". Aviation-safety.net. 5 March 1973. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. "1973: Mid-air collision kills 68". BBC news. BBC. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. Simpson, Paul (2014). The Mammoth Book of Air Disasters and Near Misses. London: Hachette UK. p. 60. ISBN 9781780338293.
  5. Sommers, Caroline (27 April 2013). Collision Course (TV Documentary). Why Planes Crash: NBC Peacock Productions.
  6. Leblanc, Larry (27 February 2010). "Re-experiencing Jimi Hendrix". Toronto Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc. Retrieved 26 February 2017.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.