French spy plane crash in Malta caused by technical malfunction

The crash of a French spy plane after taking off from Malta International Airport two years ago was caused by a technical malfunction, an investigation has concluded.

On 24 October 2016, the modified Merlin IV aircraft took off from MIA at 7.19am, spending only 10 seconds in the air before crashing in Safi, killing all five people on board.

Initially reported to have been on a Frontex mission, it later transpired the aircraft was owned by Luxembourg company CAE Aviation – a private contractor specialising in aerial surveillance and parachuting.

The mission was said to have been a French customs operation tracking human and drug trafficking routes.

READ MORE: Five French nationals on surveillance mission to Libya dead in aircraft crash outside Malta runway

According to a final report on an investigation by the French BEA-É, tasked with investigating such incidents, the accident was caused by “a technical malfunction during rotation or on lift-off, leading to a loss of control”.

The investigators say that the technical malfunction that is likely to have downed the plane probably “originated in the specific modifications of the aircraft and in the application of an inappropriate maintenance to these modifications”.

The aircraft was a modified twin turboprop Fairchild Metroliner, registered in the United States but operated by CAE.

Investigators looked into five possible scenarios: possible high-risk behaviour on the part of the pilot; physical incapacitation of one of the pilots; rupture to it’s High-Frequency (HF) antenna causing it to become “wrapped around the elevator control surface”; a technical malfunction of the SAS stall avoidance system; technical malfunction of a component of the flight controls.

READ MORE: French investigators struggling to explain 2016 spy-plane crash

The hypothesis that the crew had engaged in high-risk behaviour, including showboating or suicidal behaviour was considered, but ultimately rejected.

The plane crashed in Safi

Similarly, the possibility that the pilot or co-pilot became incapacitated during the few seconds that the plane was in the air was also rejected, especially in light of the fact that “diminished capacities of the captain cannot explain why nose-up was maintained, nor the absence of any corrective action by the monitoring pilot”.

The possibility that the plane was brought down by a rupture of the HF antenna was deemed to be improbable.

A scenario considered to be plausible was that the crash was the cause of a “malfunction to the flight control component of the elevator control line”.

The most likely scenario, according to the investigation, is that “the accident was caused by malfunction of the stall avoidance system in combination with an inappropriate response by the pilot is possible”.

Recommendations to Maltese air traffic control 

A number of recommendations where made by the BEA-É to both the French authorities and the aircraft’s operators, regarding the the way in which maintenance is carried out on the modified aircraft.

As regards local authorities, the report notes that “during the investigation, due to limited access in situ, it was not possible to determine why the controller in the tower was not the first to trigger the alarm”.

Consequently, the BEA-É recommended that the “Maltese authorities responsible for the airport to investigate the reasons why the controller in the control tower at the time of the accident was not the first person to detect the accident" and introduce measures to improve the response time.