Royal Air Maroc Flight 630

Royal Air Maroc Flight 630

The plane involved at Tenerife South Airport a few months before crashing
Incident
Date	21 August 1994 (1994-08-21)
Summary	Suicide by pilot
Site	Douar Izounine, Morocco 30°36′00″N 9°19′00″W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	ATR 42-312
Operator	Royal Air Maroc
Registration	CN-CDT
Flight origin	Agadir-Al Massira International Airport
Destination	Casablanca-Mohamed V Airport
Occupants	44
Passengers	40
Crew	4
Fatalities	44
Survivors	0

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 in Morocco. All 44 passengers and crew on board were killed. It was the deadliest ATR 42 aircraft crash at that point in time. An investigation showed that the crash was deliberately caused by one of the pilots.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an ATR 42-312 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]

Crew

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

Flight

Victims' nationalities

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Morocco	20	4	24
Italy	8	-	8
France	5	-	5
Netherlands	4	-	4
Kuwait	2	-	2
United States	1	-	1
Total	40	4	44[4]

Flight 630 was a scheduled flight from Agadir, Morocco to Casablanca using an ATR 42 aircraft. At approximately 10 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 Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, then Kuwait's minister of defence.[4]

Investigation

The commission that investigated the crash determined it to be pilot suicide.[5] Flight recorder data revealed that the ATR 42's autopilot was intentionally disconnected by Captain Khayati, who then deliberately put the aircraft into a dive.[6] Evidence also showed that during the descent, First Officer Figuigui had sent out distress calls once aware of the captain's intentions.[7] The Moroccan pilots union disputed the suicide explanation, claiming that Captain Khayati was mentally fit and showed no signs of frustration, and instead claiming that Captain Khayati reported a "technical problem" prior to takeoff, although the investigative commission never found evidence supporting this claim.[8][9] The crash was the deadliest incident involving an ATR 42 aircraft at that point in time.[10]

See also

Accidents and incidents involving the ATR 42 family Aviation safety List of accidents and incidents involving airliners by location § Morocco List of declared or suspected pilot suicides List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft Trigana Air Service Flight 267, current deadliest aviation accident involving an ATR 42 Suicide by pilot

Specific incidents EgyptAir Flight 990 Germanwings Flight 9525 Japan Airlines Flight 350 LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 SilkAir Flight 185

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". The Daily Telegraph. Associated Press. 23 August 1994. p. 5. Retrieved 5 November 2013 – via Google News.
5. "Crash that killed 44 was pilot suicide". Altus Times. Associated Press. 25 August 1994. p. 14. Retrieved 5 November 2013 – via Google News.
6. Sinha, Shreeya (26 March 2015). "A History of Crashes Caused by Pilots' Intentional Acts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. 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. "Air crash 'was pilot suicide'". The Independent. 25 August 1994. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
8. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident ATR 42-312 CN-CDT Tizounine". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
9. "Prove suicide accusation, union tells crash probers". The Deseret News. Associated Press. 27 August 1994. p. A4. Retrieved 5 November 2013 – via Google News.
10. Ranter, Harro. "Incident description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network.

External links

• A photo of the accident aircraft