Rio de Janeiro – Recife – Sal – Villa Cisneros – Lisbon – Seville – Rome

On December 24, 1939 at 12:00 AM, Rio de Janeiro – Recife – Sal – Villa Cisneros – Lisbon – Seville – Rome experienced a crash involving Savoia-Marchetti SM.83, operated by Linee Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane - LATI, with the event recorded near Dar el Caïd Allal Bou Fenzi Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight 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: 4, crew fatalities: 4, passengers on board: 3, passenger fatalities: 3, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is weather. While overflying Morocco in poor weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the aircraft that crashed in Dar el Caïd Allal Bou Fenzi, some 60 km southeast of Mogador. All seven occupants, three Italian journalists and four crew members, were killed. This route was inaugurated from Rome to Rio de Janeiro three days ago, on December 21, 1939 and this was the first return flight to Italy with the German diplomatic mail on board.

Aircraft reference details include registration I-ARPA, MSN 34017, year of manufacture 1939.