Incident Overview

Description
A de Havilland DH-125-1 corporate jet, registration F-BKMF, was destroyed when it struck the sea near Nice-Cte d’Azur Airport (NCE), France. Both pilots were killed in the accident. The airplane departed Cannes (CEQ) at 14:45 UTC and headed for Nice. The airplane would make a three fly past manoeuvres at the local Nice air show. The first fly past was performed at low height over the runway, heading 050. The crew made a right hand turn for another low pass in the opposite direction. The airplane made a right hand climbing turn to an altitude of 2000 feet. During this manoeuvre the airplane stalled and crashed in flames. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The stresses applied to the airframe of F-BKMF during the manoeuvre carried out in order to return to the Nice runway, exceeded the design limit loads of the wing unit. A rupture was then caused to the wing unit which resulted in the leakage of a large quantity of fuel from the upper surface near the wing root. The aircraft stalled under the high load factor and the pilot was unable to regain control because of the small height margin and the damage to the aircraft structure. In spite of the considerable stick forces which have to be applied in a normally trimmed aircraft in order to carry out such a manoeuvre, the latter may have been attempted by the pilot, who was experienced, skillful and cautious, in view of the following circumstances: “tight” manoeuvre at low altitude in poor visibility; air display atmosphere (type of flying pre-supposing special training different from the training normally required for a chief pilot of the Air Affaires company); possible anxiety to avoid crossing the flight paths of several aircraft in the vicinity during the display.”
Primary Cause
Stress exceeding design limits during a maneuver intended to return to the runway.Stress exceeding design limits during a maneuver intended to return to the runway.Share on: