Air France accident in the Laguna de Rocha
Latécoère 631 · Ditching after separation of a propeller blade in flight
From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Buenos Aires, Argentina
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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 62
- 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
Latécoère 631
- Aircraft type
- Latécoère 631
- 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-BANT
- Operator
- Air France
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Rio de Janeiro, BrazilTo Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
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
The Air France accident in the Laguna de Rocha occurred on 31 October 1945 on an international Air France scheduled flight from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires with a scheduled stopover in Montevideo.
Accident sequence
In flight the propeller of engine No. 3 (left inboard) separated and slit open the fuselage over a length of almost three metres; in addition, a small fire broke out. The pilots carried out an emergency landing with the aircraft in the Laguna de Rocha. One passenger died on the spot after parts of the propeller had penetrated the cabin; another passenger was seriously injured and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The failure of an aluminium hub due to metal fatigue was determined to be the cause of the accident. In the course of the repairs the hub was replaced by a steel one.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Air France in der Laguna de Rocha” (revision 251249590, 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: Flugunfall der Air France in der Laguna de Rocha
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251249590 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q121544486
- 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 "Flugunfall der Air France in der Laguna de Rocha" (page 12780955, revision 251249590), 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
- "scheduled flight" in the article's opening paragraph
- 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.