Air Littoral Flight 440
Fairchild Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II · Loss of control during initial climb
From Montluçon-Guéret Airport, France to Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
Fairchild Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Swearingen SA226
- 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-GCPG
- Operator
- Air Littoral
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Montluçon-Guéret Airport, FranceTo Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 18 November 1988, on Air Littoral Flight 440 (flight number IATA: FU440, ICAO: LIT440, callsign: AIR LITTORAL 440) from Montluçon-Guéret Airport to Paris-Orly Airport, a Fairchild Swearingen Metro crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all four occupants.
Accident sequence
Air Littoral Flight 440 was to depart in the early morning hours. The takeoff took place before dawn. The pilots received clearance to taxi their aircraft to runway 35 for takeoff. The first officer was to act as pilot flying on this flight. At 6:31 thrust was applied and the takeoff run began. Shortly after lift-off, the nose of the aircraft pitched down. The aircraft struck the ground 600 metres beyond the end of the runway and slid a few dozen metres further through bushes until it finally caught fire. All four occupants were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
After the accident, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile took over the accident investigation. The investigators concluded that the emergency system for preventing stalls (Stall Avoidance System – SAS), and with it the stick pusher, had evidently activated immediately after takeoff at a critical altitude. The investigation found that the system concerned was frequently prone to malfunctions on Swearingen Metro aircraft; in addition, the maintenance records of the aircraft concerned showed that it had had problems with this system several times in the past. Problems with the system had previously been the reason for safety recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board. Since there was no flight data recorder and the SAS was completely destroyed except for the angle-of-attack sensor and transmitter, the hypothesis could not be supported by physical evidence. The investigators also cited as accident factors an imprecise indication of the first officer's artificial horizon and a lack of visual reference points.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Air-Littoral-Flug 440” (revision 236923920, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Air-Littoral-Flug 440
- Article
- Air-Littoral-Flug 440
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 236923920 · 2023-08-31 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q107643832
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Air-Littoral-Flug 440" (page 11795348, revision 236923920), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.