Air France accident near Héric
Air France for La Poste Fokker F-27-500 Friendship and Unknown · The Air France accident near Héric occurred on 24 July 1974
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
Aircraft 1 · Fokker F-27-500 Friendship
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F-27
- 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-BPUI
- Operator
- Air France for La Poste
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rennes-Saint-Jacques Airport (RNS)To Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne airport (CFE)
Aircraft 2 · Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Héric, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Air France accident near Héric occurred on 24 July 1974. On that day an Air France Fokker F-27-500 Friendship cargo aircraft, with which a mail cargo flight on behalf of La Poste was being carried out from Rennes to Clermont-Ferrand with stopovers in Nantes and Poitiers, crashed to the ground at the end of the first leg of the flight. All three people on board were killed in the incident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft was approaching Nantes when, during the night-time approach at around 21:45 local time, it struck high-voltage power lines near Héric 12 kilometres from the airport, crashed to the ground and caught fire. The aircraft was badly damaged and all three occupants died.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigators considered the causes of the accident to be poor coordination between the crew members, a failure to follow the standard procedures for approaches to Nantes Airport, poor visibility and obstacles rising high into the air.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Air France bei Héric” (revision 241739578, 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 bei Héric
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 241739578 · 2024-01-31 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q121545246
- 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 bei Héric" (page 12780978, revision 241739578), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Air France aircraft carrying mail for La Poste: an airline mail flight for hire. The article: "an Air France Fokker F-27-500 Friendship cargo aircraft, with which a mail cargo flight on behalf of La Poste was being carried out from Rennes to Clermont-Ferrand"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_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.