Air France Flight 296 was a chartered flight of a new fly-by-wire Airbus A320-111 operated by Air France. On June 26, 1988, it was flying over Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport (ICAO code LFGB) as part of an air show. The low-speed fly-by was supposed to take place with landing gear down at an altitude of 100 feet (30 m) AGL (above ground level); instead, the plane slowly descended to 30 feet, and crashed into treetops at the end of the runway, killing three passengers. Since the flight was also a demonstration flight of the Airbus plane, this was the first crash of the A320 aircraft. The cause of the accident is disputed, as many irregularities were revealed by the accident investigation.
Read more about Air France Flight 296: Official Report, Outcome, Dramatization
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—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
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