Air Inter Flight 148
plane crash in France
Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport (formerly known as Lyon Satolas Airport) to Strasbourg Airport in France. On 20 January 1992, the Airbus A320 operating the flight crashed into the slopes of the Vosges Mountains in Eastern France, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while on a non-precision approach to Strasbourg Airport. A total of 87 of the 96 people on board were killed, while the remaining 9 were all injured.
Accident
Flight 148 was commanded by 42-year-old Captain Christian Hecquet, with 8,800 flight hours, including 162 flight hours on the Airbus A320, & 37-year-old First Officer Joël Cherubin, with 3,600 flight hours, including 61 hours on the A320. The aircraft left Lyon-Satolas (now called Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport) at 17:20 UTC. Both pilots were relatively new to the A320, with a combined total of only 300 hours in the aircraft, but they both were familiar with Strasbourg Airport as both had flown into the airport many times.
As the flight neared Strasbourg Airport, they informed ATC of their desire to follow the ILS approach for Runway 23 until the airport was in sight, followed by a visual approach onto Runway 05. This type of approach onto Runway 05 was common at Strasbourg Airport; Runway 05 was not equipped with ILS since the nearby mountains and high terrain would interfere with the glide slope signal transmitted by the ILS. ATC denied the pilots approach request, saying there would be a significant delay because of conflict with several aircraft departing on Runway 05 and instead offered vectors for the VOR/DME approach for Runway 05, which the pilots accepted. The flight was cleared to descend to 5,000 ft and vectored to the ANDLO waypoint 11 nautical miles from the Strasbourg Airport VOR. ATC cleared the aircraft onto the final approach at 18:19 UTC as it passed ANDLO, where the pilots turned left onto the runway heading of 050 degrees and continued to descend as per the approach chart.
At 18:20:33 UTC, Flight 148 crashed into the slopes of Mont Sainte-Odile at 2,620 ft, 10.5 nautical miles from the airport. The search and rescue operation commenced at 18:40.
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