1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash

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1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash

The 1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on the island of La Réunion, a French overseas department in the southwestern Indian Ocean, on the evening of 9. A military Douglas DC-6 aircraft taking off from Gillot Airport at 23h 15'  crashed two minutes later in the commune of Sainte-Marie, Réunion, resulting in the deaths of sixteen people, including French General Charles Ailleret [fr]. This aviation accident remains the deadliest in the history of La Réunion.

Quick Facts Post-takeoff crash., Date ...
1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash
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Post-takeoff crash.
Date9 March 1968 (1968-03-09)
SiteSainte-Marie, Réunion, France
Aircraft
Aircraft typeDouglas DC-6
Flight originGillot Airport
Occupants17
Fatalities16
Survivors1 (a Flight nurse)
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Aircraft

Disaster

Departing from Gillot at 23:00, the plane, which was originally scheduled to land in Djibouti at 11:40, crashed 55 seconds after takeoff.[1]

The only survivor was General Ailleret's nurse, and the accident remains classified as defense secret and unsolved to this day: sabotage, alcohol, or suicide action.[2][3]

In 1998, flight nurse Michèle Renard testified about this incident.[4]

A commemoration of this accident took place in March 2018.[5]

Notes and references

See also

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