Air France Flight 072

The accident aircraft was Latécoère 631 F-BDRC, Lionel de Marnier, msn 06.[1][2] with a first flight on 9 November 1947.

The aircraft departed from Fort de France, Martinique at 14:50 GMT on 31 July, and was due to arrive at Port-Etienne, French West Africa at 01:00 GMT on 1 August. It was carrying a crew of twelve and 40 passengers.[3] It was reported that a mayday had been received by an American radio station in the Azores just after midnight on 1 August. The aircraft's position was estimated as 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km) north of the Cape Verde Islands.[4] Two Air France aircraft, a French Air Force aircraft and a French Navy ship were sent to search for the aircraft.[3] The United States Coast Guard sent USCGC Campbell to assist in the search.[5] The Portuguese authorities allowed aircraft searching for the missing Latécoère 631 to use the Ilha do Sal Airport, which was not then open to traffic.[6] Two Portuguese Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses also joined the search.[5] The United States Air Force sent a Flying Fortress and seven Boeing B-29 Superfortresses to join the search.[7]

On 3 August, the French weather ship Leverrier reported receiving a distress message from the aircraft. A second message was received early the next morning. The American Flying Fortress also reported receiving a "faint and garbled" distress message that day.[7] USCGC Campbell reported finding two seats from the aircraft at a position 1,570 nautical miles (2,910 km) east of Puerto Rico. An aircraft later reported seeing wreckage 15 nautical miles (28 km) from the position the seats were found.[5] Some of the wreckage showed evidence of fire.[8] The search for survivors was called off on 9 August.[9] Following the accident, which was the worst crash in the Atlantic Ocean at the time and also the worst ever suffered by the Latécoère 631,[2] the type was withdrawn from service by Air France.[1]