Iberia flight 504

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Coordinates: 47 ° 2 ′ 0 ″  N , 1 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  W.

Iberia flight 504
Iberia Douglas DC-9-32 EC-BIJ.jpg

A pattern of the same type in the painting of the company at that time.
Accident summary
Accident type Airplane collision in the air
place Nantes
date March 5th 1973
Fatalities 68
Injured 0
1. Aircraft
Aircraft type Douglas DC-9-30
operator Iberia
Mark EC-BII
Departure airport Palma de Mallorca Airport
Destination airport London Heathrow Airport
Passengers 61
crew 7th
Survivors 0
2. Aircraft
Aircraft type Convair CV-990
operator Spantax
Mark EC-BJC
Departure airport Madrid-Barajas Airport
Destination airport London
Passengers 99
crew 8th
Survivors 107
Lists of aviation accidents

On March 5, 1973, a Douglas DC-9-30 collided on Iberia flight 504 (IB 504) over the French city of Nantes with a Convair CV-990 , which carried out the Spantax flight 400 (BX 400). When the DC-9 crashed, all 68 occupants were killed. The second aircraft was able to make an emergency landing, badly damaged.

accident

Aircraft involved

DC-9-30

The aircraft with the aircraft registration EC-BII was a DC-9-30 from the manufacturer McDonnell Douglas with the serial number 47077. The DC-9 was equipped with JT8D engines from Pratt & Whitney . The first flight took place on September 1, 1967. At the time of the accident, she had completed 10,852 flight hours and 9,452 take-offs and landings. The former Hendrix manager Michael Jeffery was also on board .

The unlucky machine EC-BJC

Convair 990

The aircraft with the aircraft registration EC-BJC was a Convair CV-990 from the manufacturer Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation with the serial number 10-22. The CV-990 was equipped with General Electric CJ-805 engines . The commissioning took place on September 18, 1967. At the time of the accident, she had completed 24,775 flight hours.

the accident

Iberia flight 504 took off at 11:24 a.m. UTC from Palma de Mallorca Airport for London. At 12:19 p.m. IB 504 reported at flight level 310 to Mont-de-Marsan air traffic control . At 12:21 p.m., the crew reported to the control center that the rotating radio beacon (VOR) in Nantes would be reached at around 12:52 p.m. At around 12:36 pm, air traffic control asked IB 504 to contact the Menhir control center and to descend to flight level 290.

Flight Spantax flight 400 was at the same time, also en route to London, at the same altitude shortly before VOR Nantes. For this reason, she was instructed not to cross VOR Nantes until around 1 p.m. Since the BX 400 was shortly before the VOR, the crew asked for confirmation of the instruction. Due to the distance from the control center, the confirmation and the following instruction were misunderstood. In order to delay the arrival at VOR Nantes, the crew asked twice to be allowed to fly a full circle. Since they received no answer, the pilots initiated the maneuver without consent. Flying in the clouds, the Convair collided with the oncoming DC-9 of Iberia at 12:52 p.m.

As a result of the collision, the DC-9 broke in the air and crashed. All inmates were killed. The left wing of the Convair was torn off shortly behind the outer engine, but the aircraft remained controllable.

At 12:56 p.m., one of the pilots of BX 400 declared an air emergency by means of Mayday with the intention of performing an emergency landing at Bordeaux Airport . At 1:18 p.m. the Convair was taken over by the approach control in Bordeaux and led into the approach to Bordeaux. Within sight of the Cognac-Châteaubernard military airfield , the BX 400 was signaled from there by means of green signal rockets that a landing was possible. At this point the airport fire brigade was already on standby. The landing in Cognac-Châteaubernard took place at 1:28 p.m.

Determination of causes

The accident investigation was carried out jointly by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile and the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch .

On the day of the accident, civil air traffic control workers in France were on strike . Therefore, the tasks of air traffic control were taken over by the French military. Air traffic control had assigned the same altitude and arrival time at VOR Nantes to both flights. Only later was a time separation chosen by air traffic control in order to resolve this conflict. The temporal separation requires, among other things, very precise navigation and interference-free communication, which was not the case for the BX 400. At the critical point in time, the Convair crew initiated a curve without, however, waiting for the approval of air traffic control and without knowing their own position exactly. As a result, BX 400 crossed the flight path of IB 504 through this curve and a collision occurred.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report final de la Commission d'Enquête sur la collision du DC 9 EC-BII de la Compagnie Iberia et du Coronado EC-BJC de la Compagnie Spantax. (PDF) Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile , March 1, 1975, accessed on April 26, 2010 (French commentary = Im, further, will, die, source, alemannic, report, final, BEA, page number , named).
  2. ^ Report on the collision in the Nantes area. (PDF) Air Accidents Investigation Branch , March 1, 1975, accessed on April 26, 2010 (English, the source is referred to as "Accident Report, AAIB, page number" ).
  3. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  4. ↑ a b final report. (PDF) BEA, March 1, 1975, p. 3 , accessed April 26, 2010 .
  5. ^ Accident Report. (PDF) AAIB, March 1, 1975, p. 18 , accessed April 26, 2010 (English).
  6. ^ Accident Report. (PDF) AAIB, March 1, 1975, p. 19 , accessed on April 26, 2010 (English).
  7. ↑ a b Accident Report. (PDF) AAIB, March 1, 1975, p. 7 , accessed on April 26, 2010 (English).
  8. ^ Accident Report. (PDF) AAIB, March 1, 1975, p. 10 , accessed on April 26, 2010 (English).
  9. ^ Accident Report. (PDF) AAIB, March 1, 1975, p. 58 , accessed on April 26, 2010 (English).