Air France Flight 152

Air France Flight 152 (AF152) was a scheduled international passenger flight which made an emergency water landing in the Mediterranean Sea, off Fethiye, South-Western Turkey on 3 August 1953. The aircraft sank over an hour after ditching. Four passengers died, out of 8 crew and 34 passengers.

The flight originated from Paris and was destined for Tehran, including stopovers in Rome and Beirut, with the accident occurring on the Rome-Beirut leg of the journey. The aircraft serving the flight, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation, likely experienced a propeller blade failure resulting in strong vibrations causing the No. 3 engine to detach in-flight.

Flight and accident

The scheduled flight AF152 departed from Orly Airport in Paris, France, at 18:38 hours on 2 August 1953, destination Tehran, with two planned stopovers in Rome, and Beirut. At 21:25 hours, the airliner landed at Roma-Ciampino Airport and took off at 22:32 hours with 34 passengers including an infant on board for the next stopover at Beirut International Airport. The planned flight path was over Catanzaro, Araxos, Athens, Rhodes and Nicosia. The flight time for the leg was calculated as 4 hours and 52 minutes.

At 02:10 hours on 3 August, while cruising at an altitude of 17500 ft about 50 mi off Rhodes, the No. 3 engine suddenly began to vibrate violently. At 02:15 h, a radio message was sent to Nicosia giving the aircraft's position flying over the coastline of Rhodes. The No. 3 engine soon detached from its mounts, hit and damaged the rear of the fuselage before dropping away. Ongoing vibrations subsequently led to the loss of control on the No. 4 engine. As the aircraft quickly began losing altitude, the flight crew transmitted a three minute long distress signal at 02:22h and decided to make an emergency water landing, avoiding a risky landing in mountainous terrain. They chose a site off the coast of Fethiye in South-Western Turkey after spotting the flashing light of the Kızılada Lighthouse.

During the descent the flight attendants informed the passengers about the situation, calmed them down and instructed them to put on life jackets. At 02:28, the aircraft ditched into the calm sea flawlessly, about 2 km off Kızılada in the Gulf of Fethiye approximately 10 km from Fethiye. The passengers and the crew promptly evacuated the airplane using the four emergency exits, and initially remained on the wings of the floating aircraft for over an hour until it sank.