Paris – Rome – Beirut – Tehran

On August 3, 1953 at 03:28 AM, Paris – Rome – Beirut – Tehran experienced a crash involving Lockheed L-749 Constellation, operated by Air France, with the event recorded near Fethiye Aegean Region (Ege Bölgesi).

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

42 people were known to be on board, 4 fatalities were recorded, 38 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 9.5%.

Crew on board: 8, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 34, passenger fatalities: 4, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. While cruising at an altitude of 17,500 feet between Rhodes Island and Cyprus, the crew noted slight vibrations but was unable to localize them. Four minutes later, a loud bang was noted, an explosion occurred, a brutal depressurization occurred and the aircraft lost 1,000 feet. The captain, who was sleeping, joined immediately his seat, disengaged the automatic pilot system and started an emergency descent with a rate of 300-500 feet per minute. In the mean time, the copilot informed ATC he elected to divert to Nicosia Airport. The crew realized that the engine number three fell off and decided to shut down the engine number four and feathered its propeller. Eventually, the captain decided to ditch the aircraft on a calm sea about two NM off the Fethiye lighthouse. Ten minutes after landing, the empennage broke off and sank. Some passengers swum to the shore and the aircraft eventually sank two hours later. Three crew members were injured, 35 occupants were unhurt and four passengers were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration F-BAZS, MSN 2628, year of manufacture 1950.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 36.5452°, 29.1244°.