Vélizy-Villacoublay - Orange

On January 21, 1971 at 09:40 AM, Vélizy-Villacoublay - Orange experienced a crash involving Nord 262, operated by French Air Force - Armée de l'Air, with the event recorded near Mézilhac Ardèche.

The flight was categorized as military and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

21 people were known to be on board, 21 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 8, crew fatalities: 8, passengers on board: 13, passenger fatalities: 13, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The airplane departed Vélizy-Villacoublay Air Base on a special flight to Orange AFB, carrying six officers, seven engineers of the CEA - Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (Central commission for nuclear energy) and a crew of eight who were scheduled to conduct an inspection of the nuclear center of Pierrelatte. The pilot was cleared by Marseille ATC to descent to 8,000 feet until Montélimar then to 5,000 feet to Orange. For unknown reason, the crew started the descent prematurely and in marginal weather conditions, the airplane stuck the slope of Mt Suc de Pradou (1,342 meters high) located about 3 km southeast of Mézilhac. The wreckage was found about 200 meters below the summit and all 21 occupants have been killed. Crew: Lt Pierre Chaintreau, Adj/C Jean-Michel Reig, Adj/C Jacques Deville, Adj Alain Gaudy, Sgt/C Claude Touzeau, Sgt/C Jean-Pierre Boutin, Off Alain Giblan, Sdt Bertrand Courbier. Passengers: Amiral Robert Landrin, Gen Édouard Billion, Gen Jean-Marc Pineau, Col Charles Birckel, Col Alain Rolland de Chambaudoin d’Erceville, Cpt André Bouteiller, Jean Gaume, engineer, Paul Johann, engineer, Jean Labussière, engineer, Hubert Lefèbvre de Laboulaye, engineer, Jacques Mabile, engineer, François Ronteix, engineer, Georges Tirole, engineer.

Aircraft reference details include registration 44/F-RBOA, MSN 44, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 44.8081°, 4.3512°.