Accident to the DHC6 – 300 registered F-OIQI operated by Air Moorea on 09/08/2007 off the coast of Moorea (French Polynesia)

The aeroplane took off from Moorea aerodrome for a short flight bound for Tahiti Faa’a. It climbed normally to an altitude estimated at between three and four hundred feet, then the pilot retracted the flaps and adjusted the engine parameters. He then lost pitch control of the aeroplane after the failure of the elevator pitch-up control cable. The aeroplane dived suddenly and struck the surface of the sea about seven hundred metres from the coastline.

The accident was caused by the loss of airplane pitch control following the failure, at a low height, of the elevator pitch-up control cable at the time the flaps were retracted.
This failure was due to the following series of phenomena:

• Significant wear on the cable in line with a cable guide;
• An external phenomenon, most likely jet blast, which caused the failure of several strands;
• The failure of the last strand or strands under in-flight loads on the elevator control system.