| - | ACCIDENT DETAILS |
| Date: | June 13, 1950 |
| Time: | 0116 |
| Location: | Off Bahrain |
| Operator: | Air France |
| Flight #: | ? |
| Route: | Saigon - Paris |
| AC Type: | Douglas DC-4-1009 |
| Registration: | F-BBDE |
| cn / ln: | 42937 |
| Aboard: | 52 (passengers:44 crew:8) |
| Fatalities: | 46 (passengers:40 crew:6) |
| Ground: | 0 |
| Summary: | While making a final approach for Bahrain, the aircraft crashed into the sea. The pilot did not keep a accurate check of his altitude and rate of descent during the approach. Crew error, possibly due to fatigue. An alternate probable cause may been windshear. It was not know at the time that windshear conditions existed at temperature inversion levels for several days after Shamal dust storms. The aircraft may have run out of adequate forward speed at an altitude of 400 feet after descending through a headwind level into a tailwind level when committed to land. With surface winds relatively calm and in 2,000 meters of sand haze, the winds at 400 ft. may have been in excess of 80 knots. |
Sources
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