Date:	Friday 26 January 1940
Time:	08:20
Type:	Bloch 152
Owner/operator:	GC I/8 Armée de l'air
Registration:	n° 206
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Costebelle, near Hyères, Var 83 -   France
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	Hyères-Le Palyvestre airfield
Destination airport:

Narrative:
In the morning of 26 January 1940 two Bloch 152s of GC I/8 took off from Hyères-Le Palyvestre airfield for a training flight. The leader was the sergent-chef Giordani, his wingman the sergent Marcel Armand Gabriel Droit. The goal of the exercice was to attack from the rear and the side another fighter, a third Bloch 152 of the unit flown by sergent Dupoux.

Take-off was normal and both fighters climbed to 1000 m. The leader then went down toward the target aircraft that was flying at 600m. Sgt Droit lagged a little behind, then accelerated and overtook his leader before turning on his back for no apparent reason. His Bloch 152 n° 206 then dived to the ground and crashed at 0820 hrs in a vineyard on a hill at Costabelle, near Hyères, exploded and burned. The pilot was killed. He was 21 years old and had 260 flying hours.

This accident was probably due to a too rough maneuver by the pilot, the Bloch 152 having a known tendency to turn on its back when the pilot went hard to the right. A mechanic problem might also be the cause but the state of the wreck did not allow to determine this.

"Ils étaient là. L’Armée de l’Air septembre 1939 - juin 1940", by Jacqueline and Paul Martin, ISBN 2-9514567-2-7
Carton 2B143 des archives de l’Armée de l’Air (French Air Force accidents in January-February 1940)
http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=6612
http://www.maplandia.com/france/provence-alpes-cote-dazur/var/toulon/costebelle/_/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Jan-2017 09:54	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
24-Dec-2019 16:37	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]