Saint-Laurent-en-Gâtines air accident of 26 February 1938

On 26 February 1938 a Bloch MB 200 bomber of the III Escadrille (Br 201) of the 32éme Escadre du bombardement crashed at Saint-Laurent-en-Gâtines while trying to reach Tours-Parçay Meslay airport, killing all five crew members.

The accident

On the night of 25 to 26 February 1938 a Bloch MB 200 bomber of the III Escadrille (Br 201) of the 32éme Escadre du bombardement at Châteauroux was returning to its base. The crew consisted of Second Lieutenant Vieux, Lieutenant Bédat, Warrant Officer Perrin, Staff Sergeant Giclon and Sergeant Aubry. Following a probable failure of one of the two Gnome et Rhône radial engines, the pilot looked for a place to make an emergency landing. The aircraft was losing altitude and found itself unable to reach Tours-Parçay Meslay airport, chosen as the alternate destination.

The crew looked for a suitable place to land in open country, using their signal flares to find it. Unfortunately the bomber went straight into a house, the farm of Mr and Mrs Roger. Mr Roger later gave the following statement to the press: We had been in bed for an hour and were woken by a terrible crash. The central roof of the farm had collapsed and everything had caught fire. According to the testimony, one of the aircraft's engines had come to rest 40 centimetres from the son's bed, leaving him unharmed but unable to say a word. The daily newspaper La Touraine Républicaine wrote that the first witnesses to the accident, who arrived at the scene immediately, saw the three members of the family flee from their home, narrowly escaping the surrounding flames. All five crew members perished in the disaster.

Given the high number of accidents that had struck the Bloch MB 200 model, which was nicknamed the flying coffin by the press, the Air Ministry instructed the chief of staff of the Armée de l'Air, General Joseph Vuillemin, to carry out a thorough investigation into the Gnome et Rhône engines and their use.

One year after the accident, on 28 February 1939, a commemorative monument in memory of the crew was inaugurated near a wall of the rebuilt farm. Those present included Lieutenant Colonel de Busnel, former commander of the 32éme Escadre at Châteauroux, and Commandant Châtelain, head of the group to which the aircraft belonged.