TAT Flight 230
TAT European Airlines Fairchild FH-227 · Electrical failure leading to crash
From Nancy-Essey Airport (ENC) to Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 23 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Fairchild FH-227
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild FH-227
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- F-GCPS
- Operator
- TAT European Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 23
- Route
- From Nancy-Essey Airport (ENC)To Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
TAT Flight 230 was a scheduled flight from Nancy, France to Paris Orly Airport which crashed on 4 March 1988, near Fontainebleau, France. All on board died.
Accident sequence
The aircraft, a Fairchild FH-227, took off from Nancy-Essey Airport at 5:53 local time and climbed to 14,000 feet, the flight's cruising altitude. At 6:26, the aircraft, now nearing Paris, was cleared down to 9,000 feet and then 7,000. Shortly later, the flight was cleared down to 6,000 feet. Nothing more was heard from the aircraft. The aircraft appeared to have an electrical malfunction. Control of the aircraft was lost, the plane descended rapidly, struck powerlines and crashed. All on board died.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigations findings were that in bad weather conditions, the Fairchild FH-227 operating the flight suffered an electrical malfunction, and the aircraft pitched nose down. The committee could not find a probable cause to why this happened. The accepted hypothesis is that the electrical malfunction caused loss of attitude reference and autopilot disconnect causing the aircraft to enter a high speed dive.
In the absence of an independent horizon, the crew did not have any usable attitude reference while the aircraft was in a high-speed dive, thus contributing to the crash.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TAT Flight 230” (revision 1364980478, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: TAT Flight 230
- Article
- TAT Flight 230
- Revision
- 1364980478 · 2026-07-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7669436
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TAT Flight 230" (page 35114270, revision 1364980478)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.