Date & Time:
Aug 1, 1948 at 2355 LT
Type of aircraft:
Latécoère 631
Operator:
Registration:
F-BDRC
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Scheduled Revenue Flight
Survivors:
No
Site:
Lake, Sea, Ocean, River
Schedule:
Fort-de-France – Port-Etienne – Paris
MSN:
06
YOM:
1947
Flight number:
AF072
Country:
World
Region:
World
Crew on board:
11
Crew fatalities:
11
Pax on board:
41
Pax fatalities:
41
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
52
Aircraft flight hours:
185
Circumstances:
The crew was performing a flight from Fort-de-France, Martinique, to Paris, with an intermediate stop in Port-Etienne, Mauritania. While cruising by night over the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,920 km from Port-Etienne (now Nouadhibou), the aircraft crashed into the ocean in unknown circumstances at 2355LT. No message was sent by the crew. SAR operations were jointly conducted by several countries and few debris were found by the crew of USS Campbell three days later, on August 4. Unfortunately, none of the 52 occupants survived the crash of this six-engine aircraft christened 'Henri Guillaumet'.
Crew:
Corentin Kersual, pilot,
Jean Goutay, copilot,
Henri Gloux, radio navigator,
Gontran Ronat, radio navigator,
Henri Cabanes, navigator,
Gaston Le Morvan, mechanic,
Jean Coustaline, mechanic,
Alfred Jaggi, mechanic,
Mr. Arbelot, mechanic,
Mr. Sgourdeos, steward,
Mr. Meunier, steward.
Crew:
Corentin Kersual, pilot,
Jean Goutay, copilot,
Henri Gloux, radio navigator,
Gontran Ronat, radio navigator,
Henri Cabanes, navigator,
Gaston Le Morvan, mechanic,
Jean Coustaline, mechanic,
Alfred Jaggi, mechanic,
Mr. Arbelot, mechanic,
Mr. Sgourdeos, steward,
Mr. Meunier, steward.
Probable cause:
Due to lack of concrete evidence, it was not possible to determine the exact cause of this tragedy. However, experts did not exclude the hypothesis of a serious technical issue sustained during flight.
