Royal Air Maroc Flight 630

Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 was a passenger flight on 21 August 1994 which crashed approximately ten minutes after takeoff from Agadir–Al Massira Airport. All 44 passengers and crew on board were killed. It was the deadliest ATR 42 aircraft crash at that point in time. A later investigation showed that the crash was deliberately caused by the pilot.

Royal Air Maroc Flight 630
An ATR 42-300 similar to the accident aircraft
Incident
Date21 August 1994 (1994-08-21)
SummarySuicide by pilot
SiteDouar Izounine, Morocco
30°36′00″N 9°19′00″W
Aircraft
Aircraft typeATR 42-312
OperatorRoyal Air Maroc
RegistrationCN-CDT
Flight originAgadir-Al Massira International Airport (AGA/GMAA)
DestinationCasablanca-Mohamed V Airport (CMN/GMMN)
Occupants44
Passengers40
Crew4
Fatalities44
Survivors0

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was an ATR 43-312 which had its maiden flight on 20 January 1989. The aircraft was delivered to Royal Air Maroc on 24 March the same year. The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW120 turboprop engines.[1][2]

The captain was 32-year-old Younes Khayati, who had 4,500 flight hours. The first officer was Sofia Figuigui.[3]

Flight

Flight 630 was a scheduled flight from Agadir, Morocco to Casablanca using an ATR 42 aircraft. At approximately ten minutes into the flight while climbing through 16,000 feet (4,900 m), the aircraft entered a steep dive, and crashed into a region of the Atlas Mountains about 32 kilometres (20 mi; 17 nmi) north of Agadir.

The crash site was at Douar Izounine, about 32 kilometres (20 mi; 17 nmi) north of Agadir. Among the 40 passengers on board were a Kuwaiti prince and his wife. The prince was the brother of Sheik Ahmed al-Mahmoud al-Jabir al-Sabah, Kuwait's minister of defence. At least 20 of the passengers were non-Moroccans. This included eight Italians, five Frenchmen, four Dutch, two Kuwaitis, and one American.[4]

Investigation

The commission that investigated the crash determined that the ATR 42's autopilot was intentionally disconnected by captain Khayati, who then deliberately crashed the aircraft.[5][6] A flight union disputed the suicide explanation.[7] The crash was the deadliest incident involving an ATR 42 aircraft at that point in time.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Royal Air Maroc CN-CDT (ATR 42/72 - MSN 127)". www.airfleets.net. Airfleets aviation. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  2. "CN-CDT Royal Air Maroc ATR 42". www.planespotters.net. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  3. "Pilot's Death Wish Doomed Moroccan Plane; Romantic Problems Cited". AP NEWS. Rabat, Morocco: Associated Press. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  4. "Kuwaiti Prince dies in crash." Associated Press at The Daily Telegraph. Tuesday 23 August 1994. p. 5. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  5. "Crash that killed 44 was pilot suicide." Associated Press at the Altus Times. Thursday 25 August 1994. p. 14. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  6. Sinha, Shreeya (26 March 2015). "A History of Crashes Caused by Pilots' Intentional Acts". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2015. Moroccan authorities said that Younes Khayati, 32, the pilot of a Royal Air Maroc ATR-42 aircraft, intentionally disconnected the plane's automatic navigation systems on Aug. 21, 1994, and crashed the plane into the Atlas Mountains shortly after takeoff, killing all 44 people aboard. ...
  7. "Prove suicide accusation, union tells crash probers." Associated Press at The Deseret News. Saturday 27 August 1994. p. A4. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  8. Ranter, Harro. "Incident description". Aviation Safety Network.
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