Air Algérie accident near Paris

In the Air Algérie accident near Paris, on 19 May 1960 a Sud Aviation Caravelle of Air Algérie on a scheduled flight from Algiers to Paris collided with a Stampe & Vertongen SV-4. Two people were killed. The Stampe was destroyed and the Caravelle seriously damaged.

Sequence of events

The Caravelle took off in Algiers and, apart from a partial failure of the autopilot during cruise, there were no other incidents. During the approach towards Paris, the pilots of the Caravelle were given clearance to fly a holding pattern, to descend under visual flight rules and then to land on runway 20 of Paris-Orly Airport. During the descent the Caravelle flew around an overflight marker and then had to fly a further turn for alignment before the final approach. When, at an altitude of 3600 ft (1100 m) with the airbrakes extended, the rate of descent was reduced from 1500 ft/min (460 m/min) to 1000 ft/min (305 m/min) and the speed to 260 kn (480 km/h) in order to extend the flaps, the Caravelle passed over the marker after breaking through the cloud cover and flew on heading 290/300°. The captain was trying both to spot a Convair flying to his left towards runway 20L and to watch his own runway in order to fly the last turn for alignment.

The first officer saw a Stampe flying close by ahead to his right and, although he pushed his control yoke forward, the collision occurred 13 kilometres from Paris-Orly Airport at 10:46 local time (9:46 UTC) at an altitude of 1000 m. The Stampe was torn apart by the collision and most of the wreckage fell to the ground. The roof of the Caravelle was ripped open and the engine of the Stampe penetrated the cabin and became stuck there. Furthermore, the tail unit was damaged, and both engines of the Caravelle, which were running at 5100 min−1, failed due to ingested debris, including a wheel of the Stampe. The force of the collision also deployed the brake parachute, which was automatically jettisoned. The flight engineer managed to restart both engines; the left engine reached 8000 and the right 5000 min−1. The Caravelle remained airworthy and landed at Paris-Orly Airport at 10:50 local time without further incident.

In the accident, the pilot and sole occupant of the Stampe as well as one passenger of the Caravelle died. A further 11 were treated in hospital and 20 received first aid.