What happened
On a night flight from Paris-Le Bourget to Tangier, a Caravelle operated by Royal Air Maroc and leased from Sobelair was performing a descent toward Tangier-Boukhalef Airport. During the approach, which occurred under marginal weather conditions, the aircraft deviated from its intended path, entering an incorrect approach circuit that drifted too far east of the airfield.
While flying at an altitude of 2,400 feet, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Mellaline, located approximately 42 km east of the runway 28 threshold. The impact caused the plane to disintegrate and explode. Search teams located the wreckage one day later at an elevation of 750 meters. There were 106 fatalities among the occupants of the aircraft.
Findings
Investigations into the flight path revealed that the crew initiated a procedural turn much later than the distance prescribed by the ILS Instrument Approach Chart for Runway 28. This deviation was influenced by a strong positive wind component and the fact that the aircraft failed to pass over the outer marker, preventing the pilot from timing the approach accurately.
As a result of this error, the aircraft moved outside the protected intermediate approach zones and entered mountainous terrain. In this area, the plane encountered severe turbulence, significant wind gradients, and likely gusts. Data from the flight recorder indicated that in the final seconds, the aircraft suffered a 23-knot deceleration over five seconds and lost roughly 400 feet of altitude. This sudden loss of height, paired with the atmospheric instability, led to the fatal head-on collision with the side of Pic ‘792’.