EAS Flight 602 was a regularly scheduled commercial flight operated by a Fairchild FH-227 of the French airline

Europe Aéro Service Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, which crashed during the approach to

Valence-Chabeuil Airport Valence - Chabeuil Airport is an airport in France, located about east of Valence (in the Drôme department, Rhone-Alpes region) and approximately south-southeast of Paris. The airport was a pre-World War II French Air Force (Armée de l'A ...

in the Drôme on April 10, 1989, leaving no survivors among the 22 occupants of the aircraft.

Circumstances

The EAS Flight 602 (EY 602 GA) was a Fairchild FH-227B flight of the airline Uni-Air International, chartered by

, originating from

Paris-Orly 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 ...

( France) and destined for Valence Airport ( France). On April 10, 1989, at 21:08, with three crew members and 19 passengers on board. Pierre-Chauve 26

The aircraft struck the terrain during the approach procedure near the

Col de Tourniol The Col de Tourniol is a mountain pass located at an altitude of 1,145 meters in the French department of Drôme, in the western part of the Massif du Vercors. History On , EAS Flight 602, a Fairchild FH-227B en route from Paris to Valence wi ...

, in the commune of Léoncel ( Drôme). There were no survivors among the 22 people on board. The wreckage was discovered by rescue services around 1:15 am. Nearly 300 men were mobilized and about fifty vehicles were needed for the operation. At the time, the Prefecture of the Drôme had activated the SATER plan. The day after the crash, the French Minister of Transport

Michel Delebarre Michel Delebarre (27 April 1946 – 9 April 2022) was a French politician who was a member of the Senate of France. He represented the Nord department, and was a member of the Socialiste, radical, citoyen et divers gauche. He was also mayor of ...

visited Valence. Just after the discovery of the fuselage of the aircraft, long lines of

hearses A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately a ...

formed in front of the Abbey of Léoncel. A ceremony was held before the bodies were repatriated to their families. The investigation report by the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) concluded that the accident was due to a navigation error by the aircraft's crew.. The investigations exonerated the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Drôme, then manager of Chabeuil airport, the navigation beacons, the air traffic control services, as well as the condition of the Europe Aéro Service Fokker 27. This air disaster, the deadliest in the Drôme, led to the closure of the Paris-Valence line.

Crew and aircraft

* Captain: 49 years old with 8,972 flight hours, of which 577 were on FH-227. * First Officer: 59 years old with 15,639 flight hours. * Cabin Crew: 48 years old * Passengers: 19 people * Aircraft: Fairchild FH-227B No. 532 built in 1967, registered F-GGDM with 27,249 flight hours * Engine: 2 Rolls Royce DART 532–7 with 41,879 operating hours for the left engine and 7,744 operating hours for the right engine. * Last inspection: 18 June 1989 by the TAT group. The aircraft was delivered to Uni-Air International in .

Probable cause

According to BEA report No. f-dm890410, the fatal accident was directly caused by a navigation error, notably due to: * The display and use of the VHF Omnidirectional Range License of Aircraft Station of Lyon-Satolas instead of Vienne. * A lack of mental representation of the aircraft's trajectory with insufficient crew rigor in task distribution and execution. Additionally, the crew's documentation used for navigation and the organization of the aircraft's dashboard could be sources of error with the airspace organization in the Valence region not allowing optimal use of existing radars. The crew's tasks were not defined by the operator, and the first officer had a moderate but significant blood alcohol level.

Tribute to the victims

A stele was erected at the crash site at the

on the border with the commune of

Barbières Barbières (; oc, Barbèira) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Drôme department The following is a list of the 363 communes of the Drôme department of France. The communes ...

, by the D101 road. It lists 20 names of the 22 deceased people as some families decided not to include the names of their loved ones.

Notes and references

Uni-Air International 602 Uni-Air International 602 Uni-Air International 602 1989 in France April 1989 events {{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1989