Cessna 172R Skyhawk F-HAJA accident at La Garde-Freinet

Flight details and accident location On 26 March 2005, a Cessna 172R Skyhawk registered F-HAJA was operating a visual flight rules (VFR) journey from Amiens aerodrome to Fayence aerodrome, with an intermediate stop at Clermont-Ferrand. The aircraft was owned and operated by a club and had been rented to the occupants from an aeroclub at a nearby aerodrome. The flight was conducted without a flight plan. The aircraft departed Amiens at 10:45 UTC and arrived at Clermont-Ferrand at 13:25 UTC. After refuelling with 100 litres of fuel, it departed again at 14:30 UTC for Fayence. Radar records indicated a route passing near the Mende VOR, the Millau area, Avignon, and Pertuis before the radar track disappeared in the area of the Colle Dure mountain. ## Occupants and aircraft All three occupants were killed. The left-seat pilot was a man born in 1952 holding a private pilot licence (PPL) for aeroplanes obtained in 2002, with night VFR qualification and about 300 total flight hours, including about 250 as pilot-in-command. The right-seat pilot was a man born in 1937 with a PPL from 2001, night VFR qualification, and about 250 total hours, including about 200 as pilot-in-command. The passenger was a man born in 1945 with a PPL from 1974, night VFR qualification, and about 500 total hours, including about 400 as pilot-in-command. The aircraft’s airframe and Lycoming IO-360 engine had 759 total flight hours and 356 hours since the last major inspection. A 50-hour inspection had been carried out the day before the accident. The aircraft was equipped with an artificial horizon, altimeter, VOR, ADF, and a KAP 140 autopilot coupled to a King 94 GPS with a colour map but no terrain altitude indication. It was not equipped for instrument flight. ## Weather and communications A south-westerly depressional flow brought a very humid and progressively unstable Mediterranean air mass over Provence and the Côte d’Azur, producing a heavily overcast sky in low levels up to about 20,000 ft. At 17:00 UTC, the automatic weather station at Le Luc-en-Provence, 6 nautical miles west-northwest of the site, reported wind 120°/8 kt, visibility 11 km, overcast at 1,600 ft, temperature 15 °C, humidity 80%, and QNH 1009 hPa. Météo France estimated a high probability of stratus and stratocumulus with bases between 1,000 and 2,000 ft and tops near 20,000 ft, with the summit of the Colle Dure within the cloud layer. While passing Avignon, the aircraft called Marseille Information on 120.55 MHz, but the service was closed and no contact was established. The pilot later contacted Nice Information on 120.85 MHz at 16:55 UTC, shortly after passing the vertical of Pertuis. From 17:11 UTC, calls from Nice Information went unanswered, and the controller noticed the disappearance of the radar track, triggering a DETRESFA alert. ## Recovery and investigation The next day, around 07:15 UTC, the aircraft was found by gendarmes from the La Garde-Freinet territorial brigade near the summit of the Colle Dure mountain. The aircraft was destroyed. The investigation was conducted by the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile (BEA) in accordance with ICAO Annex 13 and European Regulation No 996/2010, with the objective of drawing safety lessons rather than assigning fault or responsibility.