Crash of a Canadair CL-415 off Les Salles-sur-Verdon: 2 killed

Date & Time: Mar 8, 2004 at 1100 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
F-ZBEZ
Flight Type:
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Marseille - Marseille
MSN:
2018
YOM:
1996
Flight number:
Pélican 41
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
2
Circumstances:
One instructor and two pilots under supervision departed Marseille-Marignane Airport on a training flight. Several scooping manoeuvres were completed on the Sainte-Croix Lake located about 85 km northeast of Marseille. While completing a new scooping procedure, the aircraft approached in a high nose attitude and disintegrated upon landing. The main wreckage sank to a depth of 31 metres off Les Salles-sur-Verdon. One pilot was found alive but seriously injured due to hypothermia (the water temperature was 6° C) while both other occupants, Jean Beauvais and Jean-Pierre Laty, were killed.