Antananarivo – Morondava – Ihosy

On April 3, 1939 at 07:30 AM, Antananarivo – Morondava – Ihosy experienced a crash involving Caudron C.635 Simoun, operated by French Government, with the event recorded near Morondava Toliara Province.

The flight was categorized as postal (mail) and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 50.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The crew was performing a mail flight from Antananarivo to Ihosy with an intermediate stop in Morondava. Shortly after take off, while in initial climb, the engine failed. After a first segment of some 1,500 meters, the aircraft stalled, hit a tree and crashed in a field. While the pilot was killed, the engineer was injured. The aircraft was destroyed. Crew: Jacques Ringel, pilot, Roland Chollet, engineer.

Aircraft reference details include registration F-AOOT, MSN 7372.53, year of manufacture 1937.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -20.2880°, 44.2843°.