__NOTOC__ TAI Flight 307 was a scheduled flight operated by

Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux was a private French airline, based at Orly Airport, Paris. In 1963, it was merged with Union Aéromaritime de Transport on 1 October 1963 to form UTA French Airlines. Operations In the early 1950s its ro ...

(TAI) between France and the Ivory Coast via

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

operated by a

Douglas DC-7 The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earl ...

C. On 24 September 1959, the aircraft crashed during its departure from

Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Bordeaux-Mérignac) is the international airport of Bordeaux, in south-western France. It is situated in the ''commune'' of Mérignac, west of Bordeaux, within the ''département' ...

, France when it flew into trees. All of the flight crew and 45 of the 56 passengers on board were killed; the other 11 passengers were seriously injured.

Accident

The DC-7C arrived at Bordeaux from Paris, making a scheduled stop on its route to West Africa. Following a two-hour stopover, departure from Bordeaux took place at 22:33

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

. Weather at the time of departure was a wind and light

drizzle Drizzle is a light precipitation consisting of liquid water drops smaller than those of rain – generally smaller than in diameter. Drizzle is normally produced by low stratiform clouds and stratocumulus clouds. Precipitation rates from dri ...

that did not significantly restrict

visibility The visibility is the measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. In meteorology it depends on the transparency of the surrounding air and as such, it is unchanging no matter the ambient light level or time o ...

. Following takeoff, the aircraft reached an altitude of , and failed to climb further before flying into a pine forest located from the end of the runway. The aircraft cut a swath through the forest; some of the passengers were thrown clear of the wreckage as the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

broke up, before being destroyed in a post-crash fire. Because of the darkness and a lack of roads in the accident area, rescue workers had difficulty reaching the scene of the crash; their vehicles were unable to approach closer than to the impact site. Twelve survivors were taken to a hospital in Bordeaux; one later died despite medical care, bringing the total number of deaths caused by the crash to 54.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident, registered F-BIAP, was a

C airliner powered by four Wright R-3350-30W radial piston engines. Delivered new to

on 9 November 1957, it carried manufacturer's serial number 45366.

Probable cause

The Investigation Board appointed to determine the cause of the crash reported that the accident was most likely caused by a combination of factors. Evidence from a reconstructed flight showed that with an increase in speed for a few seconds, the

rate of climb In aeronautics, the rate of climb (RoC) is an aircraft's vertical speed, that is the positive or negative rate of altitude change with respect to time. In most ICAO member countries, even in otherwise metric countries, this is usually expressed ...

of the aircraft will decrease; with a lack of visual references "a pilot may follow a line of flight that will bring the aircraft back near the ground if, during this period, optimum climbing speed is not maintained and the altimeter is not carefully watched".

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

*
Rapport final de la commission d'enquete sur l'accident survenu, le 24 septembre 2959, a Bordeaux-Merignac, a l'avion DC 7 F-BIAP de la Compagnie T. A. I.
- Posted at the website of the BEA (France)
see profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:TAI Douglas DC-7 accident Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-7 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959 Aviation accidents and incidents in France Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux accidents and incidents 1959 in France