The 1952 Air France SNCASE Languedoc crash occurred on 3 March 1952 when a SNCASE SE.161/P7 Languedoc aircraft of

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

crashed on take-off from

Nice Airport Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

for Le Bourget Airport, Paris, killing all 38 people on board. The cause of the accident was that the

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

controls had jammed, which in itself was contributed to by a design fault. The accident was the third-deadliest in France at the time and is the deadliest involving the SNCASE Languedoc.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft was a SNCASE SE.161/P7 Languedoc, msn 43,

registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

F-BCUM. The aircraft was powered by four

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SIC-3-G The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp is an American air-cooled radial aircraft engine. It displaces and its bore and stroke are both . The design traces its history to 1929 experiments at Pratt & Whitney on twin-row designs. Production bega ...

engines.

Accident

Shortly after take-off from

on a scheduled domestic passenger flight to

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly an ...

, Paris, the aircraft was seen to bank to the left, roll onto its back and crash about north of the airport. All four crew and 34 passengers on board were killed. The flight had originated in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. The accident was the third deadliest in France at the time and is the deadliest involving the SNCASE Languedoc. Thirteen of the victims were British, including shipowner

John Emlyn-Jones John Emlyn Emlyn-Jones (22 January 1889 – 3 March 1952) was a Welsh Liberal Party politician and shipowner. Education and shipping Emlyn-Jones had a private education in Cardiff, France, Spain and Italy''Who was Who'', OUP 2007 before making ...

and his wife. Amongst the other victims were the French actresses and

Michèle Verly Michèle Verly (real name Michèle Armande Houillon) (19 July 1909 – 3 March 1952) was a French stage and film actress. She was managing director of the Théâtre Gramont from August 1945 until her untimely death. She died in the 1952 Air Fra ...

and the American actress and ballet dancer

Harriet Toby Harriet(t) may refer to: * Harriet (name), a female name ''(includes list of people with the name)'' Places * Harriet, Queensland, rural locality in Australia * Harriet, Arkansas, unincorporated community in the United States * Harriett, Texas, ...

. A Frenchwoman was initially reported to have survived the crash seriously injured, but she died later in hospital, bringing the total to 38 deaths.

Investigation

An investigation found that the cause of the accident was that the co-pilot's aileron controls had jammed due to a chain slipping off its sprocket. The difficulty of setting and inspecting the chains in the dual control columns was cited as a contributory factor in the accident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:SNCASE Languedoc crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 1952 SNCASE crash 1952 in France Air France accidents and incidents March 1952 events in Europe