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UTA Flight 772

N54629, the aircraft involved in the bombing
Bombing
Date	19 September 1989
Summary	In-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing
Site	Ténéré, Niger 16°51′54″N 11°57′13″E / 16.86493°N 11.953712°E / 16.86493; 11.953712
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
Operator	Union des Transports Aériens (UTA)
IATA flight No.	UT772
ICAO flight No.	UTA772
Call sign	UTA 772
Registration	N54629
Flight origin	Maya-Maya Airport, Brazzaville, People's Republic of the Congo
Stopover	N'Djamena Int'l. Airport, N'Djamena, Chad
Destination	Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France
Occupants	170
Passengers	156
Crew	14
Fatalities	170
Survivors	0

UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled international passenger flight of the French airline Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) operating from Brazzaville in the People's Republic of the Congo, via N'Djamena in Chad, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France on 19 September 1989, which crashed into the Ténéré desert near Bilma, Niger, killing all 170 people on board after an in-flight explosion caused by a suitcase bomb. It is the deadliest aviation incident to occur in Niger.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, with American registration N54629, serial number 46852, was manufactured in 1973 and first flew on 13 March. It was the 125th DC-10 produced, and had accumulated 14,777 flight cycles over 60,276 flight hours at the time of its hull loss. It was equipped with three General Electric CF6-50C2R engines.

The captain, 40-year-old Georges Raveneau, was an experienced pilot, with a total of 11,039 flight hours, 2,723 of which were on the DC-10. The left-seat pilot, 38-year-old Jean-Pierre Hennequin, had a total of 6,442 flight hours, 28 of which were on the DC-10. The first officer, 41-year-old Michel Crézé, had a total of 8,357 flight hours, 754 of which were on the DC-10. The flight engineer, 28-year-old Alain Bricout, had a total of 597 flight hours, 180 of which were on the DC-10.

Incident

On Tuesday, 19 September 1989 the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft took off from N'Djamena International Airport at 13:13. Forty-six minutes later, at its cruising altitude of 35,100 feet (10,700 m), a suitcase bomb exploded in the cargo hold, causing UTA Flight 772 to break up over the Sahara 450 kilometres (280 mi; 240 nmi) east of Agadez in the southern Ténéré and to the north of the Termit Massif in the Zinder Region of Niger. The explosion scattered debris over hundreds of square miles of desert. All 170 occupants were killed.

Victims

The victims came from 18 different countries, the majority being French, Chadian, and Congolese nationals. After the plane was bombed, Leonardo Leonardi, a spokesperson for the Italian Embassy in Paris, said that the embassy believed that six Italians were on the flight. A spokesperson of the Friars Minor Capuchin religious order said that two members of the order were on board the aircraft. The bishop of Moundou, Chad, was also on the flight.

The other countries with victims were the United States, Cameroon, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), Canada, Central African Republic, Mali, Switzerland, Algeria, Bolivia, Belgium, Greece, Morocco, Senegal, and the United Kingdom. Eight of the fatalities were oil workers (from Esso, Parker, and Schlumberger) returning following the completion of drilling of the Kome-3 borehole in southern Chad.

Among the victims was Bonnie Barnes Pugh (née Coverley), wife of Robert L. Pugh, American ambassador to Chad at the time.

Investigation

An investigation commission of the International Civil Aviation Organization determined that a bomb placed in a container in location 13-R in the forward cargo hold caused the destruction of the aircraft. The commission suggested that the most plausible hypothesis was for the bomb to have been inside the baggage loaded at Brazzaville airport. Initial speculation over which groups might have been responsible for destroying UTA Flight 772 centered upon Islamic Jihad, who were quick to claim responsibility for the attack, and the "Secret Chadian Resistance" rebel group, which opposed president Hissen Habré. Five years previously, on 10 March 1984, a bomb destroyed another UTA aircraft from Brazzaville shortly after the DC-8 had landed at N'Djamena airport. There were no fatalities on that occasion and those responsible were never identified.

Trial in absentia

The investigators obtained a confession from one of the alleged terrorists, a Congolese opposition figure, who had helped recruit a fellow dissident to smuggle the bomb onto the aircraft. This confession led to charges being brought against six Libyans. French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière identified them, as follows:

• Abdullah Senussi, brother-in-law of Muammar Gaddafi, and deputy head of Libyan intelligence;
• Abdullah Elazragh, Counsellor at the Libyan embassy in Brazzaville;
• Ibrahim Naeli and Arbas Musbah, explosives experts in the Libyan secret service;
• Issa Shibani, the secret agent who purchased the timer that allegedly triggered the bomb; and,
• Abdelsalam Hammouda, Senussi's right-hand man, who was said to have coordinated the attack.

In 1999, the six Libyans were put on trial in the Paris Assize Court for the bombing of UTA Flight 772. Because Gaddafi would not allow their extradition to France, the six were tried in absentia and were convicted.

On 5 September 2012, the country of Mauritania extradited Abdullah Senussi to Libyan authorities. Senussi was to be tried in Libya for crimes he allegedly committed during the time he was the close assistant to Gaddafi. Senussi appeared in a Libyan court for a pre-trial hearing on 19 September 2013. On 11 October 2013, the International Criminal Court ruled that he can be tried in Libya and lifted their warrant.

Alleged motive

The motive usually attributed to Libya for the UTA Flight 772 bombing was retaliation against the French for supporting Chad against the expansionist projects of Libya toward Chad.

The Chadian–Libyan War (1978–1987) ended in disaster for Libya following the defeat at the Battle of Maaten al-Sarra in the 1987 Toyota War. Muammar Gaddafi was forced to accede to a ceasefire ending the Chadian–Libyan conflict and his dreams of African and Arab dominance. Gaddafi blamed the defeat on French and United States "aggression against Libya". The result was Gaddafi's lingering animosity against the two countries which led to Libyan support for the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.

Libyan compensation

The Paris court awarded the families of the UTA victims sums ranging from €3 000 to €30 000 depending on their relationship to the dead. Not content with this award, the French relatives' group "UTA DC10 Families" (French: Les Familles du DC10 d'UTA) signed an agreement on 9 January 2004 with the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations accepting a compensation payment of US$170 million, or $1 million for each of the 170 UTA victims. By May 2007, it was reported that 95% of this compensation money had been distributed. However, the families of the seven American victims refused to accept their US$1 million awards and are pursuing the Libyan government through a federal court in Washington. On 19 September 2006, the court was asked to rule that the Libyan government and six of its agents were guilty of the destruction of UTA Flight 772 on 19 September 1989. Damages of more than US$2 billion were claimed for the loss of life and the destruction of the DC-10 jet.

In April 2007, D.C. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy found Libya directly responsible for the bombing and presided over a three-day bench trial from 13 August 2007 to 15 August 2007. On 15 January 2008, Judge Kennedy issued an order awarding US$6 billion in damages to the families and owners of the airliner. Libya has appealed this decision.

In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5 billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of the

1. Lockerbie bombing victims;
2. American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
3. American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and,
4. Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.

As a result, U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the U.S.

Other statements

In Manipulations Africaines (African Manipulations), published in February 2001, Pierre Péan investigated the sabotage of UTA Flight 772. He alleged that evidence pointed to Iran and Syria (acting through the Hezbollah movement), but that due to political context (notably the Gulf War), France and the United States tried to put the blame on Libya. He accuses judge Jean-Louis Bruguière of deliberately neglecting proof of Lebanon, Syria and Iran being involved to pursue only the Libyan trail. He also accused Thomas Thurman, a Federal Bureau of Investigation explosives expert, of fabricating false evidence against Libya in both the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 sabotages.

On 18 July 2011, former Libyan foreign minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham, who had defected from the Libyan government in March at the beginning of what would become the 2011 Libyan civil war, told al-Hayat that the Libyan government was responsible for the bombing of UTA Flight 772. He stated "The Libyan security services blew up the plane. They believed that opposition leader Mohammed al-Megrief was on board, but after the plane was blown up, it was found that he was not on the plane." He also claimed that "The Lockerbie operation was more complex ... the role of states and organizations has been discussed, and while the Libyan services were implicated, I do not think it was a purely Libyan operation."

Memorial

In 2007 a memorial was created in the desert by Les Familles de l'Attentat du DC-10 d'UTA, an association of the victims' families. In order to retain the sanctity of the crash site, the memorial is about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi; 5.4 nmi) away from it, so that it can be seen from planes following the same air route as Flight 772. The memorial, at 16°51′53.748″N 11°57′13.362″E / 16.86493000°N 11.95371167°E / 16.86493000; 11.95371167 (UTA Flight 772 memorial), is constructed of black rock in the shape and dimensions of the DC-10 airplane inside a compass, with the starboard half of the plane's horizontal stabilizer used as a compass point, and 170 broken mirrors to reflect the victims of the crash. The stabilizer carries a plaque with the names of those on board. The memorial is visible in aerial imagery on Google Maps.

The organizer of the memorial was Frenchman Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, whose father, Jean-Henri, died on the flight.

As of 2020, the memorial has become buried under sand due to desertification and is no longer visible.

In popular culture

Rush drummer Neil Peart mentioned this incident at length in his travel memoir, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa, as he had taken this flight less than a year prior to the incident from N'Djamena to Paris once he was finished with his Cameroon bicycling tour.

A book by Stu Newburger called The Forgotten Flight: Terrorism, Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Justice is about the crash.

Maps

BrazzavilleN'DjamenaCrash siteParisclass=notpageimage| Location of the accident and the airports

Crash siteclass=notpageimage| Crash site in Niger

See also

• Air India Flight 182
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• Pan Am Flight 73
• Pan Am Flight 103
• Pierre Péan
• Libya and state-sponsored terrorism

References

1. "FAA Registry (N54629)". Federal Aviation Administration.
2. ^ "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 N54629 Ténéré desert". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
3. "Final Rapport - Concerning the accident which occurred on 19 september 1989 in the Tenere desert (Niger) to DC-10-30 registered N54629". Ministry of planning, housing and transport. Archived from the original on 20 November 2000. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
4. Whitney, Craig R. (8 May 1997). "France Charges 6 Libyans With '89 Sahara Jet Bombing". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
5. ^ "Court Awards US Victims More Than $6 Billion for 1989 Libyan Terrorist Bombing of French Airliner That Killed 170 People Over African Desert". PR Newswire. 15 January 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
6. ^ "Les Familles de l'Attentat du DC10 d'UTA - membre de l'AfVT" [Families of the UTA DC10 Attack - AfVT member]. www.dc10-uta.org (in French). Retrieved 16 June 2009.
7. "BOMB BLAMED FOR CRASH OF FRENCH JET". Deseret News. 20 September 1989. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
8. "Plane with 171 aboard explodes". New Straits Times. 21 September 1989. Retrieved 27 April 2011 – via Google News.
9. "Case 1:02-cv-02026-HHK" (PDF). Govinfo.gov. p. 4/104. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
10. "Case 1:02-cv-02026-HHK" (PDF). Govinfo.gov. p. 5/104. Retrieved 24 March 2024. her father Harvey Mills Coverley (now deceased), - The Pere Lachaise memorial identifies her maiden name as "Coverley"
11. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63PF F-BOLL N'Djamena Airport (NDJ)". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
12. ^ Péan, Pierre (1 March 2001). "Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen" [Tampered evidence of Libyan terrorism]. Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved 24 May 2019.
13. "Mauritania 'extradites Libya ex-spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi'". BBC News. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
14. "Gaddafi spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi in court". BBC News. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
15. Greenwald, John (21 September 1987). "Disputes Raiders of the Armed Toyotas". TIME. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
16. Over $160 million of Libyan compensation distributed
17. "Compensation claim by American relatives". www.crowell.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2006. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
18. "U.S. court orders Libya to pay $6 billion for bombing". Reuters. 16 January 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
19. "Memorandum, Robert Pugh, et al. v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Civ. Action No. 02-2026-HHK (D.D.C. 15 January 2007)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
20. Carrol, Susan. "U.S. judge orders Libya to pay billions to plane victims". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
21. "Libya compensates terror victims". BBC News. 31 October 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
22. Péan, Pierre (2001). "African Manipulations: Tainted Evidence of Libyan Terrorism". Retrieved 24 January 2009.
23. "Ex-foreign minister says Libya behind 1989 airline attack". Al Arabiya. 18 July 2011. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
24. ^ Venema, Vibeke (22 January 2014). "The Sahara memorial seen from space". BBC News. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
25. "Un monument en plein Sahara pour les victimes de l'attentat du DC10" [A monument in the middle of the Sahara for the victims of the DC10 attack]. La Croix (in French). 9 July 2007. ISSN 0242-6056. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
26. "UTA Flight 772 memorial". Google Sightseeing. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
27. "UTA Flight 772 Memorial from Google Earth". DigitalGlobe. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
28. "I Noticed This Tiny Thing on Google Maps. When I Zoomed In… Well, Nothing Could Prepare Me". ViralNova.com. 2 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
29. "UTA Flight 772 Memorial". Snopes. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
30. "New book about Libya's bombing of UTA 772 - The Forgotten Flight". Radio France International. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2024.

Further reading

• Cody, Edward (21 September 1989). "FRENCH DC-10 CARRYING 170 MISSING AFTER STOP IN AFRICA". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
• Cody, Edward (21 September 1989). "AIR CRASH ATTRIBUTED TO BOMB". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
• Reynolds, Paul (19 August 2003). "UTA 772: The forgotten flight". BBC News. Retrieved 13 August 2004.

External links

• Final report (Archive) (in French)
• English translation of final report Prepared by Harro Ranter, Aviation Safety Network
  • Appendices
• Les Familles de l'Attentat du DC10 d'UTA at the Wayback Machine (archive index) (in French)
• Additional photos of memorial and its construction

• France
• Libya
• Africa
• Aviation
• 1980s

• Union de Transports Aériens accidents and incidents
• Airliner bombings
• Aviation accidents and incidents in 1989
• Terrorist incidents in Africa in 1989
• Aviation accidents and incidents in Niger
• History of the United Nations
• 1989 in Chad
• 1989 in Niger
• 1989 disasters in Niger
• 1989 in France
• 1989 in Libya
• 1989 in the Republic of the Congo
• Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10
• Chadian–Libyan War
• Mass murder in 1989
• France–Libya relations
• 1989 crimes
• September 1989 events
• Terrorist incidents in Niger
• Terrorism committed by Libya