1973 Nantes mid-air collision
Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 and Spantax Convair 990 Coronado · Mid-air collision caused by ATC error
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
- 68 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 175
- Survivors
- 107
- 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
Aircraft 1 · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
- Flight
- IB504
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- 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
- EC-BII
- Operator
- Iberia
- Onboard fatalities
- 68
- Occupants
- 68
- 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
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI)To London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Aircraft 2 · Convair 990 Coronado
- Flight
- BX400
- Aircraft type
- Convair 990
- 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
- EC-BJC
- Operator
- Spantax
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 107
- Survivors
- 107
- 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
- Not stated
- Route
- From Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)To London Gatwick Airport (LGW)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two Spanish airliners travelling to London hit each other over Nantes, France, on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.
Collision
Iberia Flight 504, a scheduled service from Palma de Mallorca, and Spantax Flight 400, a charter flight from Madrid, were both traversing France en route to London. They were guided by French military Air Traffic Control as the country's civilian air traffic controllers were on strike. The Iberia DC-9 was due to reach the Nantes VOR point at 12:52 at flight level 290 (29000 feet) and the Spantax Convair CV-990 was scheduled to reach it at 13:00 at the same level. Both aircraft had received instructions from Marina sector Air Traffic Control at the French Air Force base in Mont-de-Marsan, who asked them to contact Menhir sector ATC at the French Air Force base in Brest. The Spantax aircraft was on the boundary between the sectors and had difficulty hearing Marina ATC, also receiving no reply to two requests to circle to avoid arriving at the Nantes VOR before 13:00 GMT. The crew decided to start the manoeuvre without ATC authorisation and while in cloud collided with the Iberia DC-9 at 12:52 GMT.
The Iberia DC-9 lost control, exploded, and broke up in mid-air before crashing to the ground. All 61 passengers and seven crew were killed. 37 of the dead were French citizens, 24 were British including Michael Jeffery, the former manager of The Animals and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The Spantax CV-990 managed to land at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base with damage to its left wing. A survivor, Betty Barrett, later recounted:
No-one aboard the Spantax flight was injured, and after repairs the aircraft continued to fly for Spantax until 1979.
After the accident, more than 16 airlines decided to cancel flights over the French air space.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1973 Nantes mid-air collision” (revision 1364981303, 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 Nantes mid-air collision
- Revision
- 1364981303 · 2026-07-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2983513
- 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 Nantes mid-air collision" (page 43570402, revision 1364981303)
- 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
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_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.