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Inter Cargo Service Flight 3132

6 Feb 1989 · Mediterranean Sea, near Marseille Airport, France

Inter Cargo Service for Royal Air Maroc Vickers 952F Vanguard · Loss of control

From Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) to Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)

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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
3 · 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

Vickers 952F Vanguard

Aircraft type
Vickers 952
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-GEJE
Onboard fatalities
3
Route
From Mohammed V International Airport (CMN)To Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)

Cause areas

  • Aircraft › Aircraft systems
  • Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
  • Personnel issues › Task performance
  • Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

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

Inter Cargo Service Flight 3132 (ICAO flight number ICS3132) was an international charter cargo flight operated by Inter Cargo Service on behalf of Royal Air Maroc from Casablanca to Paris-Orly Airport with a scheduled stopover in Marseille, which was carried out on 6 February 1989. On that day, the Vickers 952F Vanguard used on the flight crashed. The aircraft plunged into the sea after takeoff from Marseille Airport, killing all three occupants.

Sequence of the accident

The aircraft, which had departed from Casablanca, had made an intermediate stop in Marseille, where part of the cargo was unloaded and further cargo was loaded. At 18:08 the aircraft taxied to the starting point of runway 32R. Four minutes later, takeoff clearance was given. Since the crew had problems with the controls during the takeoff run, the takeoff was aborted. The crew enquired about the prevailing wind conditions and carried out some checks before requesting a second takeoff clearance.

During the second takeoff run from runway 32R, the pilots also had problems with the controls, but continued the takeoff. After liftoff the aircraft rolled to the side and shortly afterwards turned inverted. The Vanguard crashed to the right of the runway and a few hundred metres off the coast into the Golfe du Lion. The Vanguard was destroyed and all three occupants were killed.

Investigation and cause

Cause

The Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile took over the investigation into the cause of the accident. The investigators concluded that the accident was caused by a broken or dislodged control chain in the drive of the left aileron. The damage to the control chain had most probably occurred when the thrust reversers were operated during the previous takeoff. The damage to the control chain had been the result of damage caused by a stepladder, which had occurred before the third-to-last flight of the aircraft.

Although the crew had recognised the control anomaly before takeoff, they had analysed the fault insufficiently and had not carried out all the check procedures prescribed in the flight manual. The power reduction immediately after takeoff had aggravated the loss of control over the aircraft and led to the stall. As contributing factors, the accident investigators cited the fact that the flight being carried out had been a training flight and that the crew had been relatively inexperienced in handling the aircraft type being flown.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Inter-Cargo-Service-Flug 3132” (revision 262987273, 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: Inter-Cargo-Service-Flug 3132
Article
Inter-Cargo-Service-Flug 3132
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
262987273 · 2026-01-03 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q110143549
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 "Inter-Cargo-Service-Flug 3132" (page 12014795, revision 262987273), translated into English with AI assistance
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
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.