Paris – Tunis – Benghazi – Cairo – Saigon

On December 29, 1935 at 12:00 AM, Paris – Tunis – Benghazi – Cairo – Saigon experienced a crash involving Caudron C.630 Simoun, operated by Private French, with the event recorded near Libya All Libya.

The flight was categorized as private and the reported phase was flight at a desert crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The Caudron C.630 Simoun with s/n 7042 was ordered in July 1935, built and delivered to its owner Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in September 1935. After several trips in Africa, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry decided at the end of December to fly from Paris to Saigon to establish a new record. After 19 hours and 38 minutes of flight, while cruising by night over the Libyan desert, the crew encountered poor weather conditions with heavy rain falls. The crew decided first to climb to 2,500 meters but cumulus were still there so he reduced his altitude to 1,000 meters then 400 meters and lower until the aircraft struck a sandy ground and crashed. Both occupants were uninjured but walked away for four days without water or any food before being rescued. The aircraft was written off.

Aircraft reference details include registration F-ANRY, MSN 7042, year of manufacture 1935.