Supt air crash of 2 December 1939

On 2 December 1939 an Amiot 143 bomber of the 35ème Escadre de bombardement crashed at Pontarlier during a liaison flight from Montdidier-Assainvillers to Pontalier, killing four of the five crew members.

The accident

On 2 December 1939, with the Second World War already under way, Amiot 143 bomber no. 110 of the 4th Escadrille of GB II/35 was returning from a liaison mission from Azainvillers to Pontarlier. Having taken off from the Montdidier-Assainvillers airfield, the bomber, owing to adverse weather conditions as a dense haze hung over the area, struck a rocky spur in the forest of La Joux, at Supt, about 25 km west of Pontarlier airfield. Killed in the impact were Second Lieutenant Roger Felix Lebrun, the aircraft commander, Sergeant pilot Armand Bazile Pasquier, Sergeant gunner Gérard Moisselin, and Sergeant Major Roger Faucard.

Sergeant mechanic Marcel Charbonnier survived; he was thrown from the aircraft at a height of 35 metres and was seriously injured. The funerals of the four dead took place on 4 December, and the bodies were buried in the local cemetery of Pontarlier. Sergeant Charbonnier was admitted to the Pontalier hospital where he was cared for by the nuns.