Air France Flight 703

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Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 25.9 ″  N , 16 ° 36 ′ 11.1 ″  E

Air France Flight 703
Lockheed L1049 F-BGNG Air France LAP 4/8/55 edited-2.jpg

An Air France Lockheed Constellation (symbolic image)
Accident summary
Accident type CFIT
place Klein-Neusiedl , AustriaAustriaAustria 
date December 24, 1958
Fatalities 0
Survivors 34
Injured 34
Aircraft
Aircraft type Lockheed Constellation
operator Air France , FranceFranceFrance 
Mark F-BAZX
Passengers 28
crew 6th
Lists of aviation accidents

The Air France Flight 703 was a scheduled flight to the French airline Air France, which in the vicinity of the December 24, 1958 Airport Schwechat accident. The accident achieved fame as The Christmas Miracle of Schwechat .

the accident

Air France flight 703 was approaching Vienna at around 11 p.m., coming from Paris-Orly via Stuttgart and Munich. The aircraft of the type Constellation L-749A approached from the west, but was requested by the tower to pass the airport due to excessive speed, to turn another loop and to land against the wind from the east. During this loop, the machine must have flown too low and too slowly, it touched the mast of a power line, fell into a field near Klein-Neusiedl and caught fire.

Although the plane exploded a little later, all 28 passengers and six crew members were able to escape in time. With the exception of Captain Pierre Candau and flight engineer George Chasseigne, who still had to be treated in the hospital for about two weeks, all the injured could be discharged to home care the very next day.

Prominent passengers

The Austrian singer and actress Liane Augustin and castle actor Walther Reyer were also on board the plane .

Aircraft

The Lockheed Constellation (serial number: 2527, aircraft registration number: N86529) was delivered to Pan American World Airways in 1947 as the L-749 , sold to Air France in 1950 and modified to the L-749A. Four Wright R-3350 engines served as propulsion . Up to the time of the accident, the machine had flown almost 30,000 hours.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report of the accident on December 24, 1958 in the Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 25, 2012.
  2. ↑ The Christmas miracle of Schwechat . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 28, 1958, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).

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