Status:
Date:	03 JUN 1967
Time:	21:06 UTC
Type:	Douglas C-54A-1-DC
Operator:	Air Ferry
Registration:	G-APYK
C/n / msn:	10279
First flight:	1944
Total airframe hrs:	42663
Crew:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Passengers:	Fatalities: 83 / Occupants: 83
Total:	Fatalities: 88 / Occupants: 88
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	Mont Canigou (France)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Int'l Non Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Manston-Kent International Airport (MSE/EGMH), United Kingdom
Destination airport:	Perpignan Airport (PGF/LFMP), France

Narrative:
The DC-4 had been cleared to descend from FL70 when it struck a mountain at an altitude of 4000 feet.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Commission is of the opinion that the accident occurred following a collision with the mountainside, which resulted directly from a series of errors on the part of the crew (failure to use all the means of radio navigation available in the aircraft, error in dead reckoning, descent starting from a point which had been inadequately identified, failure to observe the safe altitudes fixed on the company's flight plan and, perhaps, mistakes in identification by visual reference to the ground.) This irrational conduct of the flight can be explained by the phenomena due to intoxication by carbon monoxide coming from a defective heating system.
Finally, it should be stressed that the misunderstandings which occurred between the aircraft and the Perpignan controller, as a result of language difficulties and in particular the non-existence of any standard phraseology, and also the failure to check the aircraft's magnetic bearing by means of the D/F equipment during the communication at 20.55hrs, may have constituted additional aggravating circumstances."

Events:

Sources:
» Flight International 12.12.1969 (p.969)
» ICAO Circular 107-AN/81 (55-69)

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