1973 Nantes mid-air collision
mid-air collision
The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two Spanish airliners travelling to London hit each other over Nantes, France, on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.
Background
Aircraft
The first aircraft involved in the collision, operated by Iberia, was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, registered as EC-BII. It was built by McDonnell Douglas in 1967 and it had logged 10852 hours and 45 minutes of flight time and 9452 takeoff and landing cycles. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7 engines.
The second aircraft, operated by Spantax, was a Convair 990-30A-5 Coronado, registered as EC-BJC. It was built by Convair in 1962 and it had logged 24775 airframe hours. It had landed 1108 times since its last general overhaul. It was powered by four General Electric CJ805-23 engines.
Crews
Iberia Flight 504's captain was Luis Cueto Capella, aged 37, who had logged 6612 hours of flight time, 823 of which were on the DC-9.
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