58 years since the Caravelle crash: memorial ceremony in Nice

9 September 2026 Nice commemorated the 95 people who died in the Caravelle crash of the Ajaccio–Nice flight on 11 September 1968. The 58th-anniversary ceremony took place two days after the prosecutor’s office announced that the aircraft’s engines will be raised from the seabed.

Requiem and wreaths at the Memorial Stele

The day of remembrance was set by Nice town hall for Wednesday 9 September 2026. At 10:30 Canon Philippe Asso led a requiem mass at the Sainte-Hélène church on Avenue de Californie, and at noon on the Promenade des Anglais, at the Memorial Stele in the Ferber Gardens opposite the tram stop, a civic ceremony with wreath-laying took place. The mayor of Nice Éric Ciotti and the deputy mayor of Ajaccio Charles Vogliamacci met the families of the victims; President Emmanuel Macron, to whom the families’ association appealed in the summer of 2026 with a “final appeal for the truth”, did not attend the ceremony.

“This year the unrest was perhaps even greater — we believe we have come very close to the truth,” said Éric Ciotti, calling the history of the case “an omertà behind which probably lies a state truth”. This was reported by Nice Premium.

Engines will be raised over six days

On 7 September 2026 the investigating judge, the Nice prosecutor and the families’ lawyers met in Nice, and following the examination the prosecutor’s office judged the raising of the main wreckage found — in particular the two engines — to be justified and feasible. Works at a depth of 2,300 metres off Cap d’Antibes will take about six days; a specialised state service confirmed that the operation is within its capabilities, but an exact date has not yet been set, reports franceinfo.

“This is moving much faster than we expected,” said Mathieu Paoli, president of the association of victims’ families, adding that the recovery should have been started many years ago. Families hope to see the wreckage on the surface before the end of 2026. Details of the judicial decision are in the piece “Caravelle Ajaccio–Nice: court authorised the raising of wreckage from the seabed”.

Dispute over the cause has lasted 58 years

Air France Flight 1611 crashed into the sea off Cap d’Antibes a few minutes before landing; none of the 89 passengers and six crew members survived. The official 1973 investigation concluded that the cause was a fire in the rear lavatory, but the victims’ families have for decades insisted on another version — the accidental strike of a missile fired from a military range. The engines themselves may provide the answer: metallurgical analysis will show whether there was a fire on board or an external impact.

 

— — —

Photo: Okinawa Diving School World Diving / Pexels