Air France Flight 009 was a scheduled international flight that crashed into a mountain while attempting to land at Santa Maria Airport,

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

on a stopover during a scheduled international passenger flight from

Paris-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 ...

to New York City. All 48 people on board were killed.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Lockheed L-749A-79-46 Constellation F-BAZN,

msn MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

2546, built in 1947.

Accident

The aircraft was operating a scheduled international passenger flight from

, France to New York City, with a stopover at Santa Maria Airport,

. There were 11 crew and 37 passengers on board. The flight departed from Orly at 20:05 on 27 October. At 02:51 on 28 October, the pilot reported he was at a height of and had the airport in sight. After no further communications were received from the aircraft, a search was initiated, involving eight aircraft and several ships. The aircraft was found to have crashed into Pico Redondo on

São Miguel Island São Miguel Island (; Portuguese for "Saint Michael"), nicknamed "The Green Island" (''Ilha Verde''), is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, wi ...

, (It is sometimes incorrectly said to have crashed on Pico da Vara) due north of the airport. All 48 on board were killed in the crash and subsequent fire. The wreckage was spread over an area in excess of . The bodies of the victims were recovered and initially taken to the church in

Algarvia Algarvia is a civil parish in the municipality of Nordeste, on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Azores. The population in 2011 was 290, in an area of 5.40 km².Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...

. The investigation found that the cause of the accident was

controlled flight into terrain In aviation, a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT; usually ) is an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle. In a typical CFIT scenario, ...

due to inadequate navigation by the pilot whilst operating under VFR conditions. It was found that the pilot had sent inaccurate position reports and that he had failed to identify the airport.

Notable casualties

Notable people killed in the accident included the French former middleweight world champion boxer Marcel Cerdan; French violinist

Ginette Neveu Ginette Neveu (11 August 191928 October 1949) was a French classical violinist. She was killed in a plane crash at the age of 30. Early life Neveu was born on 11 August 1919 in Paris into a musical family. Her brother Jean-Paul became a class ...

, French artist Bernard Boutet de Monvel and

Kay Kamen Herman "Kay" Kamen (born Herman Samuel Kominetzky; January 27, 1892 – October 28, 1949) was an American merchandising executive, noted primarily for his work with the Walt Disney Company. He promoted Mickey Mouse – the most popular cartoon c ...

, a merchandising executive for the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Notes

Times quoted in this article are local time, per sources used. Paris times are thus

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CE ...

(CET). Azores times are

Greenwich Mean Time 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 c ...

, which is one hour behind CET.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Air France Lockheed Constellation crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 1949 Aviation accidents and incidents in Portugal 009 Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed Constellation 1949 in Portugal Transport in the Azores São Miguel Island October 1949 events in Europe 1949 disasters in Portugal