Investigation Summary
The investigation into Flight 343 was severely hampered by the limited recovery of the airframe. Despite salvage efforts, the majority of the Lockheed Super Constellation remained on the seabed at a depth of 130 feet (40 meters). The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) explored several hypotheses, including structural failure due to extreme turbulence, sensory illusions affecting the crew, or a lightning strike causing temporary distraction. The possibility of instrument failure, specifically the airspeed indicator or altimeter, was also considered. While the official accident report left the cause undetermined, subsequent legal proceedings in French courts highlighted the pilot's history of recklessness and his decision to attempt a visual landing in conditions that warranted instrument use, which the court characterized as willful misconduct.
Final Conclusions
The official investigation by the BEA concluded that the cause of the crash was undetermined due to insufficient evidence from the recovered wreckage. However, a 1964 ruling by the Tribunal de grande instance de Seine, later upheld by the Court of Appeal of Paris, found that the pilot had committed willful misconduct by attempting to land without the use of instruments in weather conditions that were clearly unsuitable for visual flight.
Video Analysis
No video analysis linked for this case file yet.
Airframe & Maintenance
Systems & Failure Modes
Instrument Landing System (ILS)
A precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. The pilot of AF343 declined an ILS approach for runway 30.
Altimeter
An instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. Investigators considered a faulty altimeter reading as a possible contributing factor to the crash.
Interesting Facts
- 01The aircraft had recorded 16,417 flight hours since its first flight in 1955.
- 02Visibility at the time of the accident was rapidly changeable with 7/8ths cloud cover at 2,000 to 3,000 feet.
- 03The pilot had previously been punished by Air France for reckless flying behavior.
- 04Only 20 percent of the aircraft wreckage was successfully salvaged from the ocean floor.
- 05Notable passengers included the French West African poet David Diop.
Location
ACCIDENT SITE · Coordinates taken from the wikipedia geotag.