Accident to the planes Coronado registered EC-BJC operated by Spantax and DC-9 registered EC-BII operated by Iberia on 05/03/1973 at La Planche

The translation below is for information only:

Both a/c, at the same flight level and on converging tracks, estimated their arrival over the Nantes beacon at approximately the same time. The Coronado (Convair 990) received instructions from atc to delay its arrival over the beacon some six min, without instructions on how to proceed. Being unable to reduce speed sufficiently, the pilot-in-command, on his own initiative, executed a 360 deg turn to the right. Whilst doing so the a/c collided with the dc-9. The dc-9 lost control and crashed to the ground. The substantially damaged Coronado managed to land at Cognac.

(Technical update January 2025)