Bastia – Ajaccio – Nice

On December 29, 1962 at 01:12 PM, Bastia – Ajaccio – Nice experienced a crash involving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, operated by Air Nautic, with the event recorded near Monte Renoso Corse-du-Sud.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

25 people were known to be on board, 25 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 22, passenger fatalities: 22, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The Boeing SA.307 Stratoliner F-BELZ arrived at Bastia (BIA), France from Nice (NCE) at 05:25 UTC. The plane took off again for the return flight via Ajaccio (AJA), Corsica at 11:49 and was cleared for a cruising altitude of FL120, estimating Ajaccio at 12:20 UTC. Last radio contact with the flight was at 12:09 when the flight crew replied to the weather and active runway information from Ajaccio Approach. At 12:12 the flight flew into a sheer rock face of Monte Renoso which is located 45 km from the Ajaccio VOR on the 048 radial. Impact was at an altitude of 2,285 m (7,500 feet) and about 50 m (165 feet) below the summit. The aircraft rebounded after impact and fell about 100 m down the slope of the mountain. All 25 occupants were killed, among them members of the Bastia Basketball team who were flying to Nice for the National Championship. The aircraft was totally destroyed. Crew: Roger Mercier, pilot, Fernand Delime, copilot, Antoine Blois, mechanic.

Aircraft reference details include registration F-BELZ, MSN 2001, year of manufacture 1940.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 42.0829°, 8.7492°.