Accident
Air France Flight 117 was a multi-leg international scheduled service from Paris-Orly Airport to Santiago, Chile, with stops in Lisbon, the Azores, Guadeloupe, and Peru. On 22 June 1962, the flight was uneventful until approaching Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. The airport is surrounded by mountains and requires a steep descent. Weather conditions were poor, with a violent thunderstorm and low cloud ceiling. The VOR navigational beacon was out of service.
The crew reported their position over the non-directional beacon (NDB) at 5,000 feet (1,524 m) and turned east to begin the final approach. Due to incorrect automatic direction finder (ADF) readings caused by the thunderstorm, the aircraft strayed 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) west from the procedural let-down track. The Boeing 707-328, only four months old, crashed in a forest on a hill called Dos D'Ane ("The Donkey's Back") at about 1,400 feet (427 m) and exploded. There were no survivors. Among the deceased were French Guianan politician and war hero Justin Catayée, poet and black-consciousness activist Paul Niger, and Wanda Llosa, first cousin of future Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
Investigation
The investigation could not determine the exact reason for the accident but suspected insufficient meteorological information given to the crew, failure of ground equipment, and atmospheric effects on the ADF indicator. Following the crash, Air France pilots criticized under-developed airports with facilities ill-equipped to handle jet aircraft, such as Guadeloupe's airport.
Aftermath
A.M. "Tex" Johnston, Chief Test Pilot of Boeing Aircraft Co., wrote in his autobiography of events leading up to the crash. He noted that Air France flight crews were habitually late for crew training, and on occasion the airplane was not serviced. After extensive flight training, the chief pilot failed to qualify. Johnston informed the Air France Chief Executive in writing that he did not believe the captain capable of qualifying in the 707. Later, an Air France instructor qualified the chief pilot. On his second trip as captain, he missed an inclement weather approach and crashed into a mountain.
Debris still remains at the site, where a memorial monument was placed in 2002 to mark the 40th anniversary of the crash. The road leading to the site is named Route du Boeing. Several commemorative steles were erected at the site, initially in 1962 and later in 2002 with an official stele listing all victims. A song titled "Volé Boeing-la" by Gérard La Viny, composed in 1962, pays tribute to the victims, including the singer's father who died in the crash.