1956 Cairo TAI Douglas DC-6 crash
Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux Douglas DC-6B · Accident
From Saigon, Vietnam to Paris, France
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
- 52 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 12
- 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
Douglas DC-6B
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-6
- 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-BGOD
- Onboard fatalities
- 52
- Route
- From Saigon, VietnamTo Paris, France
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux Douglas DC-6B scheduled flight from Saigon, Vietnam to Paris, France crashed on 20 February 1956 before its third stopover 25 km North-East of Cairo International Airport due to crew error and possible fatigue. 52 people on board were killed.
The crash was caused by a failing altimeter in combination with a pilot who was taking his flight exam while landing with self created limited visibility. The pilot was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Due to the crash, conducting flying exams became forbidden on passenger flights.
The crash has been listed by Dutch newspaper Het Huisgezin as one of the main international disasters of 1956.
Flight and crash
A Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux Douglas DC-6B with tail number “F-BGOD” departed from Saigon with a delay of around 20 hours. The flight had stopovers in Calcutta, Karachi and Cairo and had its final destination Paris. The airplane departed from Karachi to Cairo on 19 February 1956 at 17:15 UTC. The pilot had asked permission to land at Cairo International Airport just before 3am, and the plane was in sight of the airport tower.
A bit later, just before 3am at around 25 km North-East of the airport, the aircraft crashed in the desert on a hill, broke up and caught fire.
Investigation and cause
Cause of the crash
Soon after the accident Billot stated that the co-pilot, a trainee, would land the aircraft. At the moment that Billot saw that they were flying too low, he could not do anything anymore. Crew members stated shortly after the crash, that shortly before landing two engines failed and the pilot tried to make an emergency landing in the desert.
In 1964, Billot stated before the magistrate in Versailles that he was conducting a part of the flight exam with the co-pilot Robert Rolland during the landing phase. Billot was asked to do so. Part of the exam was to fly with limited visibility. Because the weather was good, they flew with the curtains closed at the sides. According to Billot, Rolland made a fateful mistake as a result of the failing altimeter.
Pilot Billot was blamed for failing to monitor the co-pilot Rolland during the approach procedure and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Co-pilot Rolland was blamed for relying exclusively on his instruments to fix his position at an altitude below the minimum safe altitude.
Immediately after this disaster, conducting flying exams became prohibited on flights with passengers.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1956 Cairo TAI Douglas DC-6 crash” (revision 1361058626, 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: 1956 Cairo TAI Douglas DC-6 crash
- Revision
- 1361058626 · 2026-06-25 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q120756440
- 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 "1956 Cairo TAI Douglas DC-6 crash" (page 74259358, revision 1361058626)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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 article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.