1973 Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crash
Sobelair for Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle SE-210 VI-N · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error and navigation error
From Paris-Le Bourget International Airport (LBG) to Mohammed V International Airport (CMN)
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
- 106 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 106
- 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
Sud Aviation Caravelle SE-210 VI-N
- Aircraft type
- Sud Aviation Caravelle SE-210
- 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
- OO-SRD
- Operator
- Sobelair for Royal Air Maroc
- Onboard fatalities
- 106
- Route
- From Paris-Le Bourget International Airport (LBG)To Mohammed V International Airport (CMN)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1973 Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crash occurred on December 22, 1973, when a Sobelair Sud Aviation Caravelle SE-210 (operating for Royal Air Maroc) crashed near Tangier, Morocco. All 106 people on board were killed.
Accident
The aircraft was leased to Royal Air Maroc to operate a passenger flight from Paris, France, to Casablanca, Morocco, with a stopover in Tangier. Most of the 98 passengers were Moroccan students and workers, as well as French tourists traveling to Morocco for Christmas. Nearly all of the eight crew members were Belgian, except for one Moroccan flight attendant. The aircraft approached runway 28 at Tangier-Boukhalef Airport at night in rainy weather. During the approach, the aircraft made a delayed turn and entered a mountainous area. The crew was assigned a safe holding altitude of 3000 ft. The flight was then cleared to land and the aircraft resumed its descent. At 10:10 pm (or 10:07 pm according to some sources) local time, the aircraft crashed into Mount Mellaline, located 20 miles east of Tangier-Boukhalef Airport at an altitude of 2300-2400 ft, killing all 106 people on board. It was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Morocco until the Agadir air disaster in 1975. It remains the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Belgian airline and is the second deadliest accident involving a Sud Aviation Caravelle, behind Sterling Airways Flight 296.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1973 Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crash” (revision 1339315703, 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: 1973 Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crash
- Revision
- 1339315703 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q18398545
- 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 "1973 Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crash" (page 40020226, revision 1339315703)
- 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
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.