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, which crashed into the Ténéré desert near Bilma, Niger, on 19 September 1989 with the loss of 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.
N54629, the UTA McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 involved in the attack.
View of Southern Ténéré desert from ISS. Approximately north-east of Termit Massif (center), is located the place of the crash and memorial.
UTA Flight 772 Memorial
Memorial at the Père-Lachaise cemetery, Paris, France.
The Ténéré is a desert region in south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger to western Chad, occupying an area of over 400,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi). The Ténéré's boundaries are said to be the Aïr Mountains in the west, the Hoggar Mountains in the north, the Djado Plateau in the northeast, the Tibesti Mountains in the east, and the basin of Lake Chad in the south. The central part of the desert, the Erg du Bilma, is centred at approximately 17°35′N 10°55′E. It is the locus of the Neolithic Tenerian culture.
A dune sea (Erg) between Fachi and Bilma.
Arakao
Fragment of Ténéré's dune seas seen from space
UTA Flight 772 Memorial