Tours – Villacoublay

On June 23, 1938 at 03:00 PM, Tours – Villacoublay experienced a crash involving Potez 540, operated by French Government, with the event recorded near Tours-Parçay-Meslay Indre-et-Loire.

The flight was categorized as ferry and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a plain, valley crash site.

7 people were known to be on board, 7 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 7, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. On the evening of 22JUN1938, the crew completed some training maneuvers in the airports of Orléans, Châteauroux and Tours before flying back to his base in Villacoublay. The twine engine aircraft left Tours-Parçay-Meslay Airport shortly after midnight on 23JUN1938. An engine misfired few minutes after takeoff and the attempted to make an emergency landing when the right wing hit the ground. Aircraft crashed in a huge explosion and was totally wrecked by impact forces and post crash fire. All seven crewmen were killed. They were performing a mission on behalf of the Section Centrale des Transports Aériens (SCTA). Crew: Captain Reynaud, Lieutenant Canal, Lieutenant de Vaisseau Perret, Sergeant in Chief Thibault, Sergeant Fabre.

Aircraft reference details include registration F-ANJO, MSN 75, year of manufacture 1936.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 47.4364°, 0.7196°.