Air France Flight 178 - Misplaced Pages

1953 aviation accident

Air France Flight 178
Accident
A Lockheed L749A similar to the accident aircraft
Date	1 September 1953
Summary	Unexplained navigation error, CFIT
Site	Mont Le Cimet near Barcelonnette, France 44°17′27.09″N 6°41′56.04″E / 44.2908583°N 6.6989000°E / 44.2908583; 6.6989000
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed L-749A Constellation
Operator	Air France
Registration	F-BAZZ
Flight origin	Orly Airport, Paris, France
1st stopover	Nice Airport, France
2nd stopover	Beirut International Airport, Lebanon
3rd stopover	Baghdad, Iraq
4th stopover	Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan
Last stopover	Dum Dum Airport, India
Destination	Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Vietnam
Occupants	42
Passengers	33
Crew	9
Fatalities	42
Survivors	0

On 1 September 1953, an Air France Lockheed L-749 Constellation, registered in France as F-BAZZ, flying Flight 178, a scheduled flight from Paris to Nice, crashed into the Pelat Massif in the French Alps near Barcelonnette on the first stage of the flight, between Orly Airport and Nice Airport. All 42 on board were killed, nine crew and 33 passengers including the French violinist Jacques Thibaud and the French pianist René Herbin.

The aircraft was a four-engined Lockheed L-749 Constellation piston-engined airliner registered F-BAZZ, construction number 2674, that had first flown in 1951 in the United States and had been delivered to Air France on 18 July 1951. The Constellation had left Orly at 22:00 and was due at Nice at 23:55. At 23:25 the aircraft requested permission to descend from 13,600 ft (4 145 m) to 11,500 ft (3 505 m) and reported violent local storms. Around 23:30 villagers at Fours-St. Laurent saw the aircraft crash into the side of Mont Le Cimet, about ten miles (16 km) away. The aircraft struck the ground about 500 ft (150 m) below the summit and burst into flames.

A rescue party from Fours left about 90 minutes after the accident, but did not arrive at the scene until 5:25, they were joined by a doctor and nurse from Barcelonnette and two teams from the Chasseurs Alpins. The Chasseurs Alpins were equipped with radio and reported at 6:45 that no survivors had been found. The accident investigation established "controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)" as the cause. The aircraft had 33 passengers, 30 bound for Saigon and three for Beirut. Three of the passengers were the 72-year-old French violinist Jacques Thibaud, his daughter-in-law and his accompanist. Thibaud's 1720 Stradivarius violin, "Thibaud", was also destroyed in the crash.

References

^ "Thibaud Killed in Air Crash". The Times. No. 52717. London. 3 September 1953. p. 6.
^ Eastwood, Tony; John Roach (1991). Piston Engine Airliner Production List. The Aviation Hobby Shop. p. 237. ISBN 0-907178-37-5.
Accident description for Air France Constellation F-BAZZ at the Aviation Safety Network
*"Famous Air Crash Victims - Part 2: Musicians". bbc.co.uk. 1 December 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2009.

External links

v t e Lockheed Constellation family
Model numbers	L-049 L-051 L-084 L-104 L-139 L-149 L-249 L-349 L-449 L-549 L-649 L-749 L-849 L-949 L-1049 A B/F L-1149 L-1249 L-1449 L-1549 L-1649
Names	Constellation (I) Constellation (II) Constellation (III) Speedfreighter Starliner Super Constellation (I) Super Constellation (II)
Military designations	B-30 C-69 C-121 F EC-121 PO R7O/R7V -2 WV W2V
Accidents and incidents	TWA Flight 513 (1946) TWA Flight 6963 (1946) Pan Am Flight 121 (1947) Pan Am Flight 1-10 (1948) Air France Flight 009 (1949) TWA Flight 903 (1950) Air India Flight 245 (1950) Pan Am Flight 151 (1951) Air France Flight 152 (1953) Air France Flight 178 (1953) KLM Flight 633 (1954) Air India Flight 300 (1955) El Al Flight 402 (1955) LAV Flight 253 (June 1956) TWA Flight 2 (1956) LAV Flight 253 (November 1956) KLM Flight 844 (1957) KLM Flight 607-E (1958) Lufthansa Flight 502 (1959) TWA Flight 891 (1959) Avianca Flight 671 (1960) Air France Flight 343 (1960) TWA Flight 266 (1960) Air France Flight 406 (1961) TWA Flight 529 (1961) IA Flight 201/8 (1961) FTL Flight 739 (1962) Paradise Airlines Flight 901A (1964) EAL Flight 853 (1965) LANSA Flight 501 (1966)
Notable aircraft	Avion Pirata Columbine II Kashmir Princess
Topics	Operators Variants

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1953 (1953)
Jan 5 Nutts Corner Viking accidentJan 7 Associated Air Transport Trip 1-6-6AJan 15 RAF Mediterranean Sea mid-air collisionFeb 2 Skyways Avro YorkFeb 14 National Airlines Flight 470Mar 12 Avro Lincoln shootdown incidentMar 20 Transocean Air Lines Flight 942Apr 20 Western Air Lines Flight 636May 2 BOAC Flight 783May 17 Delta Air Lines Flight 318May 27 Kemerovo mid-air collisionJun 14 Aeroflot Flight 229Jun 18 Tachikawa air disasterJul 12 Transocean Air Lines Flight 512Jul 17 USMC R4Q NROTC crashAug 3 Air France Flight 152Sep 1 Air France Flight 178Sep 16 American Airlines Flight 723Oct 14 Sabena Convair CrashOct 27 Aeroflot Flight 783Oct 29 BCPA Flight 304Nov 23 Felix Moncla
1952 ◄ ► 1954

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1953 (1953)

Jan 5 Nutts Corner Viking accidentJan 7 Associated Air Transport Trip 1-6-6AJan 15 RAF Mediterranean Sea mid-air collisionFeb 2 Skyways Avro YorkFeb 14 National Airlines Flight 470Mar 12 Avro Lincoln shootdown incidentMar 20 Transocean Air Lines Flight 942Apr 20 Western Air Lines Flight 636May 2 BOAC Flight 783May 17 Delta Air Lines Flight 318May 27 Kemerovo mid-air collisionJun 14 Aeroflot Flight 229Jun 18 Tachikawa air disasterJul 12 Transocean Air Lines Flight 512Jul 17 USMC R4Q NROTC crashAug 3 Air France Flight 152Sep 1 Air France Flight 178Sep 16 American Airlines Flight 723Oct 14 Sabena Convair CrashOct 27 Aeroflot Flight 783Oct 29 BCPA Flight 304Nov 23 Felix Moncla

1952 ◄ ► 1954

Air France

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Former subsidiaries	Airlinair Air Mauritius (28%) Brit Air Flandre Air Joon Proteus Airlines Régional Regional Airlines Servair
Merged into Air France	Air Orient Air Inter Air Union Compagnie Générale Aéropostale Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne Société Générale des Transports Aériens Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux Union Aéromaritime de Transport

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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