On 9 May 1934, a Wibault 282T-12 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 a ...

crashed into the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

off

Dungeness Dungeness () is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the hamlet ...

, United Kingdom, while operating an international scheduled passenger flight from

Le Bourget Le Bourget () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The commune features Le Bourget Airport, which in turn hosts the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Museum). A very ...

, Paris, France to

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, Surrey, United Kingdom. All six people on board were killed.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft was Wibault 282T-12 F-AMHP, c/n 8. The aircraft had entered service with

Air Union Air Union was a French airline established January 1, 1923, as the result of a merger between the airlines ''Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes'' and '' Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens''. Air Union was merged with four other French airli ...

on 21 August 1933, passing to Air France on formation.

Accident

The aircraft was operating a scheduled international passenger flight from

, Paris, France to

, Surrey, United Kingdom. It was carrying three crew and three passengers. The aircraft had taken off from Le Bourget at 11:15

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(10:15

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 ...

) and passed over

Le Tréport Le Tréport () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy, France. Geography A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D 940, the D 78 and t ...

, Seine-Maritime at 12:10. At 12:19, a

radio fix In telecommunication and position fixing, the term radio fix has the following meanings: *The locating of a radio transmitter by bearings taken from two or more direction finding stations, the site of the transmitter being at the point of intersec ...

obtained from Croydon established that the aircraft was west by south of Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais. There were no further messages received from the aircraft. The weather at the time included low clouds. At 17:20 GMT, the Folkestone

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

was launched with instructions to search the sea at a position south east by south of

, where it was reported that wreckage had been observed. The Dover lifeboat also joined the search. No trace of the aircraft was found during the search, which was hampered by thick fog. The Folkestone lifeboat did not return to its station until after 22:00 GMT. The lack of an SOS call from the aircraft indicated that it had crashed into the sea while attempting to fly below the low cloudbase. On 18 May, a mailbag from the aircraft was washed up on the French coast.

Casualties

The nationalities of the casualties were:-

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Air France Wibault 282T crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 1934 Aviation accidents and incidents in Kent Air France accidents and incidents History of the English Channel Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain 1934 disasters in the United Kingdom May 1934 events 1934 disasters in France