Aigle Azur - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

There were several hull-loss accidents involving Aigle Azur aircraft between 1949 and 1954, most of which took place in French Indochina, today's Laos or Vietnam.

• On 27 November 1949, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-OABJ) was shot down near Dong Khe, where a major battle in the First Indochina War would take place 10 months later.
• On 9 July 1950, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-BFGL) crashed shortly after take-off from Casablanca (then in France), resulting in the 18 passengers and 4 crew members on board being killed.
• On 12 February 1951, another Aigle Azur Skytrain (registered F-OABK) was damaged beyond repair in a crash landing at Luang Prabang Airport (in today's Laos, then French Indochina). There were no fatalities.
• On 17 March 1953, an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered F-BEFG) crashed during a bad-weather landing attempt at Da Nang Airport following a flight from Hue-Phu Bai Airport, resulting in the death of the eight persons on board.
• On 16 April 1953, anothItalic texter Aigle Azur C-47 (registered F-BESS) lost one wing shortly after take-off from Hanoi on a military charter flight to Nà Sản Airport. The aircraft subsequently crashed, and the 27 passengers and 3 crew members on board died.
• On 19 June 1953 an Aigle Azur Douglas C-47 (registered F-BEST) crashed in a hill after a fire had broken out on board, killing the 29 passengers and 5 crew members (which makes it the deadliest accident of the airline to date). The aircraft had been on a flight from Vientiane Airport to Saigon Airport. The wreckage could only be found ten days later.
• On 31 January 1954, the pilots of an Aigle Azur Skytrain (registered F-BGXD) which was due to operate a flight out of Dien Bien Phu Airport accidentally retracted the landing gear when the aircraft had not taken off yet, resulting in the airframe being damaged beyond repair.
• On 4 March 1954, during the First Indochina War, at around 04:00 local time, an Aigle Azur Douglas DC-3 (registered F-OAPC) that was parked at Gia Lam Airport, Hanoi, was destroyed by Vietnamese rebels.
• On 30 August 1954, an Aigle Azur Sud-Ouest Bretagne (registered F-BEHS) was damaged beyond repair during an emergency landing at Hanoi.

In more recent times, there was only one (non-fatal) incident involving an Aigle Azur aircraft:

• On 8 January 2008 at 08:51 local time, an Aigle Azur Airbus A321-200 (registered F-GUAA) that was operating on Flight 258 from Paris-Orly Airport to Algiers Airport, was substantially damaged during a hard landing and subsequent tailstrike at its destination airport, during which a two metre long fuselage gash occurred. This was due to a faulty handling of the thrust lever by the commanding pilot (who was sitting in the right seat instead of the usual left one he was accustomed to). There were no serious injuries under the 59 passengers and 8 crew members on board, and the aircraft could be repaired.