ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 16939
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| Date: | Monday 7 December 1936 |
| Time: | c. 10:40 |
| Type: | Latécoère 300 |
| Owner/operator: | Air France |
| Registration: | F-AKGF |
| MSN: | 1 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | South Atlantic Ocean -
 Atlantic Ocean
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Dakar (06:43) |
| Natal | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Aircraft was operating an international scheduled flight (aircraft routed Marseille-Dakar-Natal-Rio de Janeiro). Christened 'Croix du Sud', the aircraft was performing its 25th cross Atlantic flight from France to South America. The trip was officially from Marseille to Rio de Janeiro with two intermediate stops in Dakar (Senegal) and Natal (Brazil).
Less than one hour after it left Dakar, the crew confirmed by radio he was encountering a technical problem with the right rear engine and that he was returning to Dakar. Several controls were made on this engine but an oil leak was detected and the engine must be changed. As no spare engine was available, crew made a complete thorough cleaning and took off again from Dakar at 06:43 LT. Four hours later, the radio station received a short message, where Mermoz reported that he had to cut the power on the aft starboard engine. The message was interrupted abruptly. No further messages were received, and neither the Latécoère 300 nor the crew were ever recovered.
It is assumed that the engine they had tried to repair lost its propeller mid-flight, and being one of the aft engines, the loose propeller either badly damaged or cut the hull entirely, causing the plane to lose its tail and crash instantly. Henri Guillaumet, one of Mermoz's fellow pilots, had encountered the same problem a few months before, but as his own engine was on the forward side, airspeed had been sufficient to maintain the propeller in place until the landing.
Crew:
Jean Mermoz (34) pilot,
Alexandre Pichodou, co-pilot,
Edgar Cruveilher, radio navigator,
Jean Lavidalie, engineer,
Henri Ezan, navigator.
Sources:
http://www.santafe.gov.ar/hemerotecadigital/diario/17654/
http://jn.passieux.free.fr/html/Late300.php
http://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/images/wehrmann/Latecoere%20300.pdf (German text)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Mermoz#Disappearance_at_sea
http://aircraftube.com/index.php?fichid=881
https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/toute-une-vie/jean-mermoz-1901-1936-a-tire-d-aile
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 30-Mar-2008 05:57 | harro | Added |
| 23-Nov-2016 18:21 | TB | Updated [Source] |
| 01-Apr-2019 20:14 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 04-Apr-2019 17:49 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 23-Dec-2019 22:03 | TB | Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 06-Jun-2020 07:43 | TB | Updated [Source] |
| 06-Jun-2020 07:43 | TB | Updated [Source] |
| 31-Oct-2021 08:58 | gerard57 | Updated [Source] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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