Montardon air crash of 26 August 1938

On 26 August 1938 a Potez 540 reconnaissance bomber of the 36ème Escadre de reconnaissance crashed at Montardon during an emergency landing, killing all four crew members.

The accident

At 20:30 on 26 August 1938 13 Potez 540 twin-engine bomber and reconnaissance aircraft of Groupe de reconnaissance II/36 (36ème Escadre de reconnaissance) took off from Pau airfield for a navigation training mission. At 20:00 the weather conditions were good, but they worsened rapidly. The bombers were to carry out a night navigation training mission on the route Pau-Bordeaux-Toulouse, with reconnaissance of railway activity. While they were in flight, radio messages transmitted to the aircraft reported the change in atmospheric conditions, with a rapid deterioration of visibility, and the bombers tried to return to their departure base. The aircraft of Commandant Louchard, which was flying without visibility at 250 m, descended to a lower altitude, coming out of the fog, and when he saw the lights of the road coming from Bordeaux he managed to land at 01:15.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Marie Fernand Cornillon, commander of the 36ème Escadre de reconnaissance, noticed, at an altitude of 800 m, the long longitudinal strips parallel to the gave (a torrential watercourse in the Pyrenees), the small river that passed near the airfield. A corridor between two strips of ground allowed him to see the lights on the ground and he landed at 00:30. Commandant Héraud flew over the airfield at 23:07; through a gap he could clearly see the south-east lights of the field as well as the beacon, but the rest of the runway was covered in fog, so he diverted towards Toulouse where he landed without problems.

The escadrille of 4 Potez 540s of which Potez 540 no. 136 was a part was to take off and split into two pairs: two aircraft were to cover the route Pau–Lyon–Pau; the other two the route Pau–Istres–Pau. At 18:00, shortly before take-off, the crews met near the Eiffel hangars. Under the direction of A/C Lartigue, the hangar manager, the aircraft were brought out for refuelling at the fuel pump. During the return two aircraft of the patrol turned to land at Toulouse, while the other two went on approach to Pau airfield.

Potez 540 no. 52 was flown by Chief Warrant Officer Louis Marie Boisson, with the crew consisting of Sergeants Jean François Antoine Rella, Jean Léon Pierre Reulet and Serge Edgard Alexandre Vasseur. The aircraft attempted to land at the airfield at 3:00 in the morning. The aircraft lowered its landing gear, retracted the antenna, and headed towards the airfield with the engines at idle, but 2,000 metres from the runway it struck a group of trees. The aircraft lost a wing and fell into the Luy de Béarn, a watercourse. The fuselage, after striking the tops of four trees and breaking in two, ended up upside down in the small river, a short distance from the village of Montardon. The entire crew perished in the accident. The remains of the aircraft were found the next morning by a group of local farmers.

The second aircraft, Potez 540 no. 136, crashed at Mazerolles, with the loss of the entire crew.

The final report drawn up at the time by the Gendarmerie nationale of concluded with the following sentence: The two accidents are due to unfavourable atmospheric conditions. The two accidents, which occurred almost simultaneously, received great prominence in the press, making the front page of many newspapers.

The prefect, the chief of staff and a special commissioner inspected the wreckage of the two aircraft.

A funeral ceremony took place in the church of San-Martin-de-Pau, near the Boulevard des Pyrénées, in the presence of the bishop of Bayonne, Monsignor Henri Jean Houbaut, and was celebrated by Abbé Loustau, a war veteran, while the homily was given by Father Benjamen Bordachar, former volunteer military chaplain and superior of the college of Bétharram.

The wreckage of the two aircraft was subsequently recovered and scrapped.