On August 3, 1975, a

Royal Air Maroc Royal Air Maroc (RAM, ; ; ) is the Morocco, Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa. RAM is wholly owned by the Cabinet of Morocco, Moroccan Government, and has its headquarters o ...

chartered

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

passenger flight from Le Bourget Airport in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to Inezgane Airport in

Agadir Agadir (, ; ) is a major List of cities in Morocco, city in Morocco, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Sous River, Souss River flows into the ocean, and south of Casabla ...

crashed into a mountain on approach to Agadir Inezgane Airport, Morocco. All 188 passengers and crew on board were killed. This is the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Boeing 707 and the deadliest in Morocco.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an 11-year-old Boeing 707-321C registered as JY-AEE. It was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan engines. The manufacturing number was 18767/376.

Flight

The 707, owned by Alia Royal Jordanian was chartered by the national airline of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, to fly Moroccan workers and their families from

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

home for the holidays. The flight left Le Bourget Airport in Paris shortly after midnight with 181 passengers and 7 crew members and was scheduled to arrive at its destination about 4:30 a.m. The aircraft approached Agadir in the early hours of the morning at the time of the crash. There was heavy fog in the area and the aircraft was flying in from the northeast over the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range, which stretches around through M ...

. At around 04:25 local time, as the 707 was descending from for a runway 29 approach, its right wingtip and no. 4 (outer-right) engine struck a peak about northeast of Agadir at altitude. Part of the wing separated. The aircraft lost control and crashed into a valley about below. Local residents of Imzizen, 30 miles northwest of Agadir, had to walk for to reach a telephone to notify authorities about the crash. Rescue teams arrived by helicopter and found wreckage over a wide area after searching for hours in the thick fog. The extent of the destruction was such that nothing bigger than in size was found. At the time of the crash, it was the third deadliest crash in civil aviation history.

Cause

The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error in not ensuring positive course guidance before beginning descent. The aircraft had not followed the usual north-south corridor generally used for flights to Agadir.

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Morocco Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in 1975 Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 707 Aviation accidents and incidents in Morocco Royal Air Maroc accidents and incidents Royal Jordanian accidents and incidents 1975 in Morocco August 1975 in Africa 1975 disasters in Morocco