Air France Flight 1611 - Misplaced Pages

1968 airliner crash in the Mediterranean off Nice

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Air France Flight 1611
Accident
A Caravelle similar to the one involved.
Date	11 September 1968
Summary	Loss of control after a fire in rear cabin of uncertain origin
Site	Mediterranean Sea 43°17′07″N 7°13′25″E / 43.28528°N 7.22361°E / 43.28528; 7.22361
Aircraft
Aircraft type	SE-210 Caravelle III
Aircraft name	Béarn
Operator	Air France
Registration	F-BOHB
Flight origin	Ajaccio-Campo Dell'Oro Airport
Destination	Nice (Aéroport de Nice-Côte d'Azur)
Occupants	95
Passengers	89
Crew	6
Fatalities	95
Survivors	0

Air France Flight 1611 (AF1611) was a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III en route from Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, to Nice, France, on 11 September 1968 when it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off Nice, killing all 95 on board. According to the official report, the crash was non-survivable. The Ajaccio-Nice Caravelle crash is the deadliest aviation incident in the Mediterranean Sea to date. However for unknown reasons, all documents & photos related to the accident have been kept classified.

The probable cause was attributed to a fire of uncertain origin which originated in the rear of the cabin. There was early speculation that the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile, since there is a firing area not far from the crash site. Although the hypothesis was officially discarded by the inquiry board, many victims' relatives still have doubts and have asked to have access to classified documents about the event.

Final Report

In December 1972, the inquiry board of the French ministry of transportation published its official report. The report surmised that the loss of the aircraft had been caused by a fire in the passenger toilet caused either by a defective water heater or a cigarette discarded in a waste bin. This rejected the suggestion of any missile strike, basing its findings on the aircraft's survival time after the pilot's initial report to air traffic control of a fire on board, the examination of the wreckage recovered from the seabed, knowledge of a similar accidental fire in another Sud Aviation Caravelle, and the declaration by the French defence ministry that there were no surface ships in the area capable of launching missiles.

Among the dead was French general René Cogny.

Missile theory

On 10 May 2011, Michel Laty, a former army typist, alleged on French television channel TF1 that he saw a report indicating a missile, misfired by the French army during a weapon test, in fact caused the crash.

A 2019 article in The Guardian newspaper reported that, after the crash, documents and photographs about it disappeared. The 11 September page in the log book for Le Suffren, a French Navy missile frigate in the area, was torn out. The aircraft's black box flight recorder was said to have been damaged, with the recording of flight AF1611 unreadable, although earlier flights were recorded. Wreckage recovered was seized by France's military. An investigation was started in 2011 by gendarmes, and in September 2019 the theory that a fire had started in a toilet was disproved. A family member of one of those killed said "The investigating judge has said he is practically certain to almost 100% that the plane was hit by a missile. Now we are waiting". French president Emmanuel Macron wrote to a victim's family, saying that he hoped the affair would be declassified, and that he had asked the armed forces minister to begin the process of releasing documents related to the crash.

References

^ "ASN Aircraft accident Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III F-BOHB Nice, France". Aviation Safety Network. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
^ Benard, R. (14 December 1972). "Rapport Final sur l'accident survenu le 11 septembre 1968 au large de cap d'Antibes" [Final Report on the accident on 11 September 1968 off Cap d'Antibes] (PDF). Journal Officiel de la République Française (in French). 1972 (30): 952–954. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 February 2012. Official report by the inquiry board of the French ministry of transportation.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
"TV documentary reveals that military missile did kill 95 people". The Riveria Times. 12 May 2011. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
"Crash Antibes/1968: Michel Laty, témoin capital, est mort" [Crash Antibes/1968: Michel Laty, principal witness, is dead]. Syndicat National du Personnel Navigant Commercial (in French). AFP and others. 16 December 2011.
Willsher, Kim (10 September 2019). "'We need to hear it': families' 51-year wait for truth about French plane crash". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 January 2020.

External links

"Arthur O'Connor's Last Flight"—Factual, 14 November 2007; BBC Radio 4 programme
Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
The Other 9/11 (in English)—More details about this crash, subsequent investigation, and the mysteries that surround it

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 (1968)
Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight 1668Jan 21 Thule Air Base B-52 crashFeb 7 Indian Air Force An-12 crashFeb 16 Civil Air Transport Flight 10Feb 29 Aeroflot Flight 15Mar 6 Air France Flight 212Mar 9 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crashMar 24 Aer Lingus Flight 712Mar 27 Yuri Gagarin's MiG-15 crashMar 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 965Apr 5 Hawker Hunter Tower Bridge incidentApr 8 BOAC Flight 712Apr 20 South African Airways Flight 228May 3 Braniff Flight 352May 12 Kham Duc C-130 shootdownMay 22 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841May 28 Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892Jul 1 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253AJul 3 BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845Jul 23 El Al Flight 426 hijackingAug 14 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417Sep 11 Air France Flight 1611Oct 25 Northeast Airlines Flight 946Nov 22 Japan Air Lines Flight 2Nov 24 Pan Am Flight 281Dec 2 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55Dec 12 Pan Am Flight 217Dec 24 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736Dec 26 El Al Flight 253Dec 26 Pan Am Flight 799Dec 27 North Central Airlines Flight 458Dec 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982Dec 31 MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750
1967 ◄ ► 1969

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 (1968)

Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight 1668Jan 21 Thule Air Base B-52 crashFeb 7 Indian Air Force An-12 crashFeb 16 Civil Air Transport Flight 10Feb 29 Aeroflot Flight 15Mar 6 Air France Flight 212Mar 9 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crashMar 24 Aer Lingus Flight 712Mar 27 Yuri Gagarin's MiG-15 crashMar 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 965Apr 5 Hawker Hunter Tower Bridge incidentApr 8 BOAC Flight 712Apr 20 South African Airways Flight 228May 3 Braniff Flight 352May 12 Kham Duc C-130 shootdownMay 22 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841May 28 Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892Jul 1 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253AJul 3 BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845Jul 23 El Al Flight 426 hijackingAug 14 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417Sep 11 Air France Flight 1611Oct 25 Northeast Airlines Flight 946Nov 22 Japan Air Lines Flight 2Nov 24 Pan Am Flight 281Dec 2 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55Dec 12 Pan Am Flight 217Dec 24 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736Dec 26 El Al Flight 253Dec 26 Pan Am Flight 799Dec 27 North Central Airlines Flight 458Dec 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982Dec 31 MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750

1967 ◄ ► 1969

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in France between 1950 and 1999
1950– 1954	Air India Flight 245 (November 1950) Tête de l'Obiou C-54 crash (November 1950) Air France SNCASE Languedoc crash (March 1952) Air France Flight 178 (September 1953)
1955– 1959	Hijacking of the FLN plane (October 1956)* Linee Aeree Italiane Flight 451 (November 1956) TAI Flight 307 (September 1959)
1960– 1964	Air France Flight 406 (May 1961)* Derby Aviation crash (October 1961) Air France Flight 007 (June 1962) Air France Flight 117 (June 1962)^ Malév Flight 355 (November 1962) Air Inter Flight 2611 (August 1963)
1965– 1969	Air India Flight 101 (January 1966) Air Ferry DC-4 accident (June 1967) Air France Flight 212 (6 March 1968)^ Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash (9 March 1968)^ Air France Flight 1611 (September 1968)
1970s	Pakistan International Airlines Flight 712 (December 1971) Air Inter Flight 696Y (October 1972) Nantes mid-air collision (March 1973) Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash (June 1973) Varig Flight 820 (11 July 1973) Pan Am Flight 816 (22 July 1973)^ Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (March 1974) TWA Flight 355 (September 1976)
1980s	Aer Lingus Flight 164 (May 1981) Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 (December 1981) Air Littoral Flight 1919 (December 1987) TAT Flight 230 (March 1988) Air France Flight 296Q (June 1988)
1990s	Air Inter Flight 148 (January 1992) Trans-Air Service Flight 671 (March 1992) Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634 (January 1993) Airbus Industrie Flight 129 (June 1994) Air France Flight 8969 (December 1994) Proteus Airlines Flight 706 (July 1998)
^ Occurred in overseas departments and overseas territories * Occurred in French Algeria, now an independent country 1785–1949 ◄ 1950–1999 ► 2000–

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