Accident Details
On an unspecified date, a four-engine cargo aircraft departed Algiers-Houari Boumédiène Airport at 1705 local time on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, with a crew of three. While cruising at an altitude of 25,000 feet over northern Italy, the copilot informed air traffic control about a failure of the automatic pilot system. Less than one minute later, the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent. During the descent, the overspeed alarm sounded in the cockpit.
Impact and Aftermath
The aircraft, in a nose-down attitude of 45–50 degrees and at a speed of 850–900 km/h, crashed in an open field southwest of Piacenza, Italy. The impact caused total disintegration of the aircraft. A large crater was found at the point of impact, and debris was scattered over an area extending up to 800 meters around the crash site. All three crew members were killed.
Investigation
The official investigation noted that the high degree of fragmentation and the substantial absence or unavailability of flight data recorder (FDR) data made the safety investigation very difficult and prevented acquiring indisputable certainty on certain aspects. Based on examination of evidence and technical analyses, the investigation concluded that the accident likely resulted from a sudden loss of control of the aircraft, reasonably attributed to a technical problem in the flight control system. The pilots were unable to counter or manage the problem, and the investigation could not detect the exact cause with absolute certainty.