Air France Flight 178
A Lockheed L749A similar to the accident aircraft | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 September 1953 |
| Summary | Unexplained navigation error, CFIT |
| Site | Mont Le Cimet near Barcelonnette, France 44°17′27.09″N 6°41′56.04″E / 44.2908583°N 6.6989000°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-749A Constellation |
| Operator | Air France |
| Registration | F-BAZZ |
| Flight origin | Orly Airport, Paris, France |
| 1st stopover | Nice Airport, France |
| 2nd stopover | Beirut International Airport, Lebanon |
| 3rd stopover | Baghdad, Iraq |
| 4th stopover | Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan |
| Last stopover | Dum Dum Airport, India |
| Destination | Tan Son Nhat International Airport, State of Vietnam |
| Occupants | 42 |
| Passengers | 33 |
| Crew | 9 |
| Fatalities | 42 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 1 September 1953, an Air France Lockheed L-749 Constellation, registered in France as F-BAZZ, flying Flight 178, a scheduled flight from Paris to Nice, crashed into the Pelat Massif in the French Alps near Barcelonnette on the first stage of the flight, between Orly Airport and Nice Airport.
All 42 on board were killed, nine crew and 33 passengers including the French violinist Jacques Thibaud and the French pianist René Herbin. His Stradivarius was also lost in the crash.