Beaumont-la-Ronce air accident of 23 June 1938

On 23 June 1938 a Potez 540 bomber of the Section Centrale des Transports Aériens (SCTA) crashed at Beaumont-la-Ronce shortly after taking off from Tours airport, killing all seven crew members.

The accident

At 23:17 on 22 June 1938 Potez 540 n.135 (FF-ANJO), assigned to ministerial flights, having departed from the Châteauroux air base, landed at Parçay-Meslay-Tours airport to refuel.

The aircraft's crew was reinforced, comprising seven members belonging to the Section Centrale des Transports Aériens (SCTA), then under the command of Maurice Rossi, and was training in night flying. It consisted of Captain Georges Reynaud, first pilot, a native of the Aude, formerly personal pilot to the Air Minister Pierre Cot and who had taken part in the Schneider Trophy, Captain Jean Ranieri of the 31st Aviation Regiment, passenger, Captain Maurice Marmagnant, also of the 31st, passenger, Lieutenant Paul Canal, Lieutenant René Perret of the Marine nationale, destined according to the newspapers of the time to take command of the air component of the aircraft carrier Béarn, Staff Sergeant Albert Thibault, radio operator, and Sergeant Yves Fabre, engine mechanic.

That evening's training flight had taken them around the region: Vélizy-Villacoublay, Orléans, Châteauroux and Tours-Parçay-Meslay, before returning to Vélizy-Villacoublay. Immediately after taking off from Parçay-Meslay, the twin-engine Potez 540 had engine problems while still at low altitude, some ten kilometres north of the airport, in the commune of Beaumont-la-Ronce. An eyewitness reported that the aircraft was flying at low altitude, looking for ground on which to make an emergency landing, with its engines losing power. He stated: We had a sick horse. Around midnight I got up to go to the stables. It was then that I saw an aeroplane which, turning in the sky, flew a little further on, turned, then came back to pass over the farm. It was flying so low that I feared it would hit a hangar. After a minute or two a tremendous explosion rang out, so that the house shook, then a great glow rose from the Choisille valley. I immediately thought an accident had happened, I alerted my father and my sister and, taking my bicycle, I went to the scene.

As in the Saint-Laurent-en-Gâtines accident in February, the airmen had no chance of escape. The countryside offered ideal landing strips, but the aircraft entered the valley of the Choisille. The meadow, which seemed to guarantee a safe landing, was in reality a peat bog and the aircraft, which had just refuelled, exploded on impact. The solemn funeral of the seven airmen was held on 25 June in Tours cathedral. After the accidents at Saint-Laurent-en-Gâtines (five dead) in February, that at Beaumont-la-Ronce (seven dead) and at Reims, a week later (five dead), the military authorities launched as many investigations, which were published in the press as early as 1 July.

For the Beaumont-la-Ronce accident the cause was identified as the loss of power of the left engine which, with the turn almost certainly to the left, resulted in a considerable loss of altitude. The pilot nevertheless knew that the aircraft was dangerously approaching the ground, since he had lit the Holt landing flares (these flares had been lit by the pilot, an observation made on the spot). Suddenly seeing a wooded hill in front of him, the pilot had made a sharp turn to the right to avoid it, a turn that brought the tip of the right wing into contact with the ground (traces precisely recorded).

On 27 June General Henri Jauneaud, acting commander of the 2nd Air Region, cleared the pilots of all responsibility. Lieutenant Colonel Tavera, however, concluded his report thus: However, the pilots of the Potez 540 should be given formal instructions that day and night flights be carried out under normal conditions, that is, with the landing gear retracted.

The command's inquiry had in fact revealed an astonishing practice among the pilots: It was noted that the pilots of the Air Transport Section had got into the habit of not retracting the landing gear in night flight. This habit stems from the fact that, when the Potez 540 first entered service, some crews had noticed difficulties in operating the landing gear in flight. The technical inspectorate had also studied this way of operating in August 1935 and in January 1938.

It was considered the largest …