The Plane Wreck on Tibherine: Morocco's Highest Crash Site

Walk the northern side of the Toubkal massif and you come across something that stops

most people mid-step: an aircraft engine, sitting in the rocks of a 3,880 m summit, with

metal scattered down the slope below it.

It has been there since 1969. Most accounts of it get at least one detail wrong, so here

is what the record actually says.

What happened

On the night of 28 November 1969, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation was flying from

Faro in Portugal towards Sao Tome. Its cargo was ammunition, and its eventual destination

was Biafra -- the territory that had seceded from Nigeria in 1967 and was, by late 1969,

in the final months of a losing war.

Over Morocco the crew hit engine trouble and told air traffic control they wanted to

divert to the nearest airport. The aircraft lost height instead, and struck Tibherine

East. All eight people aboard were killed.

Eight months before anyone found it

The wreck was not located until 18 July 1970, when mountaineers climbing in the

Toubkal region came across the debris at around 3,900 m.

That eight-month gap explains a persistent confusion: articles that date the crash to

1970 are citing the discovery, not the accident. Both dates are real, and they are not

the same event.

Where it actually is

Tibherine is a twin summit: East at 3,880 m and West at 3,887 m, close enough in

height and profile that they are known locally as the twins. The wreck is on the

eastern top.

This is the source of the other common error. Accounts quoting 3,886 or 3,887 m are

giving the west summit's height for a wreck that lies on the east one.

Debris runs down the west face and into the couloir below. One of the engines is embedded

in the summit itself, which is the piece most trekkers photograph.

What most articles get wrong

The number of dead is the one worth correcting. Several travel write-ups say four crew.

The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives -- the primary accident record -- says eight.

We publish eight.

It matters beyond pedantry. This is a war-cargo flight that killed everyone aboard and

lay unfound on a mountainside for most of a year. Halving the casualty figure turns it

into a curiosity.

Can you go and see it?

Not on the standard Toubkal route, and we would rather say so plainly than imply

otherwise.

Our Toubkal treks go to Toubkal's own summit at

4,167 m and return to the refuge. Tibherine is a separate objective on a different,

much less travelled line. The approach is unwaymarked, loose, and steeper than anything

on the tourist path.

It can be added for experienced trekkers, with a guide who knows the ground and in

settled conditions. It does not fit a two-day itinerary. If seeing it matters to you,

say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether it works with the trip you

are considering -- often the answer is that you need an extra day.

Since 2018, a licensed guide has been a legal requirement anywhere in Toubkal National

Park, so this is not a route to attempt alone in any case.