Sergent Aimé-AUGIER

Aimé AUGIER was born in Briançon (05 - Hautes-Alpes) on 13 February 1919.
After the war, he joined Air France as a flight engineer. He spent his entire career with this company. With his wife, he lived in Ormesson (94 - Val de Marne)
Aimé AUGIER retired to Six-Fours (83 - Var)
He died on 29 December 2007 in Peyrolles en Provence (13 - Bouches du Rhône)

The accident of Farman F222.2 No13 on 27 January 1942 :

The documents shared by Mr MARENCO, Sergeant AUGIER's nephew, allow to relate precisely the crash of the Farman F222.2 No13 of the GT I/15 on January 27, 1942 of which Sergeant AUGIER will be the only survivor
Certainly, this event took place in a period after the one treated by this Site, but some victims fought during the Campaign of France : this argument will be more than enough to share these very interesting documents.

Composition of the crew of Farman F222.2 n13 registered L-155:

Crew :

Chief Warrant Officer Gabriel André DUVIVIER : Pilot. Born on June 22nd 1903 in Lamecourt (60 - Oise)
Lieutenant Jean MOSSER : Aircraft Commander. Born on January 13th 1905 in Levallois-Perret (75) Experienced pilot, he was for a long time an instructor at the ISTRES School. He joined the GT I/15 in January 1941 within which he carried out many long distance flights
Warrant Officer Charles Gabriel PONCET : Mechanic. Born on February 20th 1912 in St Pierre l'Eglise (50 - Manche)
Sergeant-Chef Louis Eugène BOISARD : Radio, born on April 2nd 1917 in Morlaix (29 - Finistère). He had a total of 595 flying hours, including 118 hours at night
Passengers :
Staff-Sergeant Fernand Henri CLAUDOT: Mechanic. Born on November 19, 1908 in Boutancourt (08 - Ardennes)
Sergeant Roger André SEGUIN: Mechanic. Born January 09, 1920 in Agencourt (21 - Côte-d'Or)
Sergeant François FABRE : Mechanic. Born on 22 September 1921 in Avignon (84 - Vaucluse)
Sergeant Aimé AUGIER : Mechanic

Account of the flight of 27 January 1942:

On 27 January 1942, at 3.47 am, 4 Farman F222 of the GT I/15, left Istres under the command of Lieutenant DEBRAS. Departures were staggered every 5 minutes, the first aircraft to take off being Farman F222.2 No13.

At 4.57 am, the pilot of Farman F222.2 No13, asks for his bearing and without doubt misled by the wind speed, decides to descend under the clouds.

At 5h35, the pilot receives a second bearing which places him slightly North of TIZI-OUZOU. At this moment, the Sergeant-Chef CLAUDOT comes to inform the Sergeant-Chef AUGIER located at the back of the plane, that Algiers is in sight, which seems impossible: the plane is only 300m from the ground and the visibility is bad.
In fact, the aircraft, pushed by a strong wind, drifted and is not over the sea, but in a wooded hill region whose altitude varies from 300 to 400m
It is therefore probable that the pilot thought he could see the lights of Algiers through the clouds, but realising his mistake, he made a wide curve around TIZI-OUZOU, but at the end of his turn, he hit a hill 2 kms from TIZI-OUZOU, 30m from the top...
After having crashed into the top of the trees, it crashed and caught fire immediately. Only Sergeant AUGIER managed to leave the aircraft through a hatch at the rear of the fuselage. It seems that only this Farma F222.2 No13 was equipped with such a hatch...
7 of the 8 people on board died in this crash. Of the aircraft, only the rear tailplane seems to be intact, landed on a very steep slope.

The accident report concluded:

"Navigation error by the Aircraft Commander who seems not to have been able to exploit the weather information given to him at the start (clouds at 1000 - 1200m and N.N.W wind of 80 to 90km/h) and not to have trusted the previous gonio readings which placed him above the earth".