Air France Flight 212 (1968)

Not to be confused with Air France Flight 212 (1969).

Air France Flight 212 was a scheduled passenger flight from Santiago, Chile to Paris with scheduled stops at Lima, Quito, Bogotá, Caracas, Pointe-à-Pitre, Vila do Porto, and Lisbon.^[1] On March 6, 1968, the Boeing 707 operating the flight, named "Chateau de Lavoute Polignac", crashed while approaching Le Raizet Airport in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, killing all 63 occupants of the plane.^[1]

Air France Flight 212

A similar Air France Boeing 707-320C
Accident
Date	5 March 1968 (1968-03-05)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	La Grande Soufrière, Guadeloupe 16.0°N 61.7°W / 16.0; -61.7
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 707-328C
Aircraft name	Château de Lavoûte-Polignac
Operator	Air France
IATA flight No.	AF212
ICAO flight No.	AFR212
Call sign	AIRFRANS 212
Registration	F-BLCJ
Flight origin	Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, Santiago, Chile
1st stopover	Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima, Peru
2nd stopover	Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Quito, Ecuador
3rd stopover	El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia
4th stopover	Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas, Venezuela
5th stopover	Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
6th stopover	Santa Maria Airport, Santa Maria, Azores
Last stopover	Lisbon Airport, Lisbon, Portugal
Destination	Orly Airport, Paris, France
Occupants	63
Passengers	52
Crew	11
Fatalities	63
Survivors	0

Accident

When air traffic control had cleared the flight deck crew for a visual approach to Le Raizet Airport's runway 11, the crew had reported the airfield in sight. Flight 212 started to descend from flight level 090 (approximately at 9,000 feet (2,700 m)) and passed over Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe at an altitude of about 4,400 feet (1,300 m).

As the aircraft continued north-westerly, it crashed into the Grande Découverte mountain, 27.5 kilometres (17.1 mi) south-southwest of Le Raizet Airport and about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the main peak of La Grande Soufrière, at an altitude of 3,937 feet (1,200 m). The site is uphill from Saint-Claude and the Matouba hot springs.

Investigation

The accident investigators cited the probable cause as a visual approach procedure at night in which the descent was begun from an incorrectly identified point.

Aircraft

The aircraft had flown for 33 hours since coming off the Boeing production line, and was on its second revenue service (its maiden passenger flight was the previous day's outbound journey from Paris).^[2]

Other accidents

The accident came six years after Air France Flight 117, another Boeing 707, crashed into a mountain further north on the same island while on approach to Point-à-Pitre's Le Raizet airport. Less than two years later, on 4 December 1969, Air France suffered another crash on the same leg of Flight 212 when the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Caracas.