Incident Overview
A crew operating a delivery flight from Southend, UK, to Nigeria with planned stops at Marrakech, Agadir, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas, and Dakar encountered fuel exhaustion during a night flight, resulting in a ditching 22 km off the Moroccan coast. All three crew members were rescued by a trawler that arrived shortly after the ditching.
Flight Sequence
The flight departed Southend and proceeded as planned initially. However, the crew decided not to land at Agadir as scheduled and continued directly to Fuerteventura. While approaching Fuerteventura, the crew attempted to contact air traffic control but were unsuccessful. Additionally, the Fuerteventura Nondirectional Beacon (NDB) was switched off, preventing the crew from receiving any navigational signal. Consequently, the crew elected to return to Agadir. During the return leg, the aircraft exhausted its fuel supply, forcing the pilot to ditch the aircraft approximately 22 km offshore.
Rescue and Aircraft Loss
Following the ditching, a trawler crew promptly arrived on scene and evacuated all three crew members. The aircraft subsequently sank and was presumed lost.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined that the Fuerteventura NDB had been switched off for the night, as the airport was closed to traffic. The crew filed a flight plan to Las Palmas before departure from Marrakech, but Fuerteventura Airport was already closed at that time. It is believed that the crew failed to prepare the flight according to standard procedures and failed to land at Agadir Airport as scheduled, leading to fuel exhaustion and the ditching.