Biberach mid-air collision
Private aircraft Partenavia P.68 and French Air Force Dassault Mirage III · Mid-air collision
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
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 4
- 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
- 7
- 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
- Military
Aircraft 1 · Partenavia P.68
- Aircraft type
- Partenavia P-68
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Private aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stuttgart Airport (STR)To Biberach an der Riß Airfield (EDMB)
Aircraft 2 · Dassault Mirage III
- Aircraft type
- Dassault MIRAGE
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- French Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- 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 Strasbourg Airport (SXB)To Memmingen Allgau Airport (FMM)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Biberach an der Riß, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Biberach mid-air collision occurred on 27 June 1983 in the air over Biberach an der Riß (Baden-Württemberg), when a Mirage IIIC fighter aircraft of the French Air Force collided with a Partenavia P.68 passenger aircraft. The pilot of the Mirage IIIC and four people on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into three residential houses. The Partenavia P.68 also crashed, killing both pilots.
Course of the flight
The Mirage IIIC was flying at low level under VFR visual flight conditions on its way from Strasbourg to Memmingen when, shortly before 12 o'clock, it collided with a small Partenavia P.68 passenger aircraft on approach, on its way from Stuttgart to Biberach. The Mirage crashed into a residential area, where four people on the ground were killed. The pilot of the Mirage IIIC died in the collision with the Partenavia P.68 over Warthausen-Birkenhard. A further seven people on the ground were seriously injured. When the Mirage IIIC crashed, several residential houses burned down because of the burning aircraft fuel, and the blast wave destroyed some windows in Biberach.
The Partenavia crashed into a wooded area with young fir trees. The two crew members died in the crash.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The pilot of the Mirage was distracted by a manual change of the radio frequency and in doing so did not pay attention to his surroundings, but to setting the correct frequency on the radio. In the collision with the Partenavia, the pilot of the Mirage was killed and the aircraft flew on pilotless until it crashed. The Partenavia crashed to the ground immediately after the collision and broke apart.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugzeugkollision von Biberach” (revision 269735584, 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: Flugzeugkollision von Biberach
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269735584 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q108806791
- 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 "Flugzeugkollision von Biberach" (page 11945333, revision 269735584), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- 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.