Malaga – Tangier

On March 31, 1965 at 10:04 AM, Malaga – Tangier experienced a crash involving Convair CV-440 Metropolitan, operated by Iberia - Lineas Aéreas de Espana, with the event recorded near Tangier-Boukhalef Tangier-Tétouan.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

53 people were known to be on board, 50 fatalities were recorded, 3 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 94.3%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 48, passenger fatalities: 45, other fatalities: 0.

The aircraft took off from Malaga, Spain, at 0733 hours GMT, on a non- scheduled international flight to Tangier, Morocco, and return. Meteorological conditions were good as far as Gibraltar; however, the aircraft encountered conditions which were below the general minima north-west of Tangier. The crew first contacted Tangier control tower at 0755 hours, estimating Tangier at 0805 hours. The 0720 hours weather observation was then passed to the crew. At 0758 hours the crew was informed that the Tangier VOR was inoperative and two minutes later they were requested to report at 2 500 ft over the TW locator or field in sight. At 0802 hours they were provided with the 0750 hours weather observation together with the latest QNH (1 024 mb) and QFE (1 022 mb). This was acknowledged by the crew at 0803 hours. All subsequent calls from Tangier control tower remained unanswered. It was subsequently found that the aircraft had crashed at about 0804 hours into the sea, approximately 10 NM off the Moroccan coast. Three passengers were rescued while 50 other occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration EC-ATH, MSN 388, year of manufacture 1957.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 35.7381°, -5.8804°.