The crash of Tramoyes involving the Air Inter Flight 2611 occurred on , when a

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a retired British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. T ...

708 operated by

Air Inter Air Inter () (legally ''Lignes Aériennes Intérieures'') was a semi-public French domestic airline in France that operated from 1954 until it merged with Air France in 1997. It was last headquartered in Paray-Vieille-Poste, Essonne.''World Ai ...

, which was on a scheduled service from

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, crashed in the early afternoon in Tramoyes in the southwest of the

Ain Ain (, ; ) is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

department, during its approach to Lyon-Bron Airport, located about 15 kilometers away.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a

708 built by the British company

Vickers-Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

in 1954 for

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

and acquired by

on 16 March 1962. It was equipped with four

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

engines of the Dart 506 type. It had accumulated 12732 flight hours.

Crew

In command was

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Georges Valencia, born on 1 September 1925, had logged 7400 flight hours. He was responsible for navigation and engine control on this flight. His

co-pilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is a pilot in addition to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command of the aircraft. Requirement Hi ...

was First Officer Guy Cleret-Langavant, born on 21 July 1930, had logged 5795 flight hours. He was the pilot-flying on this flight. The Chief Flight Attendant was Christiane Souleil, born on 22 May 1939. She was seriously injured in the accident and requested Francis Girard, the first person to arrive at the accident site, to inform Bron Airport. She died at the Édouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon. The other Flight Attendant was Liliane Perois, born on 31 October 1942.

Accident

While being held for landing, it encountered a severe thunderstorm. A wing of the aircraft struck two trees, then the roof of a farmhouse, and finally the aircraft collided with a reinforced concrete electric pole and crashed into a field. Twelve people were killed instantly, and four were seriously injured, but only one survived, a five-year-old girl. In total, the accident caused 16 fatalities: 11 of the 12 passengers, all 4 crew members, and 1 person on the ground.

Cause

The probable cause of the accident was the blinding of the crew caused by a severe lightning flash, causing them to lose control of the aircraft.

Other Air Inter and Vickers Viscount accidents

The crash of Tramoyes was the first of three aircraft crashes experienced by

during its existence (1958–1997), all three occurring in circumstances quite similar to those of the crash of Noirétable on 27 October 1972 (a

coming from Lyon-Bron and approaching Clermont-Ferrand crashed in the

Forez Forez (; ) is a Provinces of France, former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire (department), Loire ''département in France, département'' and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme ''dépa ...

at night and in a storm) and the Mount Sainte-Odile disaster on 20 January 1992 (an

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

from Lyon-Satolas and approaching Strasbourg crashed in cloudy weather at night, near Mont Sainte-Odile). The British medium-haul

, launched in 1948, experienced a very large number of accidents during its career. Of the 445 aircraft put into service, there were 150 accidents or serious incidents, 144 of which resulted in the loss of the aircraft (

List of accidents and incidents involving the Vickers Viscount As World War II came to a close the British government realised that it was going to have to drastically change its air manufacturing industry to avoid becoming dependent on American aircraft companies. To address this issue the Brabazon Committ ...

Notes and references

External links

Rapport d'enquête sur l'accident
on the BEA website {{Aviation accidents and incidents in France between 1950 and 1999 1963 in France August 1963 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1963 Accidents and incidents involving the Vickers Viscount Air Inter accidents and incidents