What happened
On the scheduled flight from Caracas to Pointe-à-Pitre, an Boeing 707 operated by Air France departed Venezuela at 19:27. The aircraft, registered as "Château de Lavoûte-Polignac", was a recently delivered jet. During the flight, the crew communicated with Piarco controllers, providing updates on their descent from FL330 through FL150 and eventually reaching FL90.
As the aircraft approached Guadeloupe, the pilot established contact with Pointe-à-Pitre Tower at 20:29. While following a non-standard route, the aircraft flew over the illuminated town of Basse Terre. The crew likely mistook this coastal area for their destination airport and estimated arrival within roughly one minute. After reporting they could see the airport, the aircraft was cleared for a visual approach to runway 11.
During the descent, the plane passed over Saint Claude at an altitude of about 4,400 feet. The Boeing 707 subsequently struck the southern slope of La Découverte, the peak of the La Soufrière Volcano, at an elevation of 1,200 meters. There were no survivors recorded in this accident.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the crash was caused by a visual approach procedure conducted at night where the descent began from an incorrectly identified location. Due to the absence of flight recorders and the specific condition of the wreckage, investigators could not definitively reconstruct the exact sequence of events leading to this navigational error.