On August 3, 1975, Royal Air Maroc chartered a Boeing 707 passenger flight from Le Bourget Airport in Paris to Inezgane Airport in Agadir which crashed into a mountain on approach to Agadir Inezgane Airport, Morocco. All 188 passengers and crew on board were killed. It is the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Boeing 707, as well as the deadliest in Morocco.[1]
 JY-AEE, the aircraft involved, seen at Frankfurt Airport, the day before the crash | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 3, 1975 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
| Site | Near Tamri, Morocco 30°35′12″N 9°24′40″W / 30.586776°N 9.411217°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 707-321C |
| Operator | Jordanian World Airways on behalf of Royal Air Maroc |
| Registration | JY-AEE |
| Flight origin | Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France |
| Destination | Inezgane Airport, Agadir, Morocco |
| Occupants | 188 |
| Passengers | 181 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 188 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Flight
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The 707, owned by Jordanian World Airways, a subsidiary of Alia, was chartered by the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc, to fly 181 Moroccan workers and their families from France home for the holidays.[2] It was the early hours of morning when the aircraft approached Agadir. There was heavy fog in the area and the aircraft was flying in from the northeast over the Atlas Mountains. At around 04:25 local time, as the 707 was descending from 8,000 feet (2,400 m) for a runway 29 approach, its right wingtip and no. 4 (outer-right) engine struck a peak at 2,400 feet (730 m) altitude. Part of the wing separated. The aircraft lost control and crashed into a ravine.
Rescue teams found wreckage over a wide area. The extent of the destruction was such that nothing bigger than 1 square metre (10 sq ft) in size was found.
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.[3][4]
References
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- ^ Ranter, Harro. "Accident description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ "188 on Charter Jet Killed In Moroccan Crash in Fog". The New York Times. August 4, 1975. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ Accident Synopsis 08031975[usurped]
- ^ "Un Boeing jordanien s'écrase près d'Agadir. CATASTROPHE AÉRIENNE AU MAROC: 188 MORTS" [A Jordanian Boeing crashes near Agadir. AERIAL DISASTER IN MOROCCO: 188 DEATHS] (PDF) (in French). Retrieved August 9, 2019.