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Not very far from Morocco’s highest summit, a huge piece of metal can be seen from afar. The latter looks like the remains of a Star Wars-like robot, but in reality the piece stuck atop Tibherine, a mountain located in the Toubkal Massif of the Moroccan High Atlas, is the engine of an old aircraft that crashed almost 50 years ago.
To locals and guides, the old aircraft engine is an attraction site to mountaineers who, while trying to climb Toubkal, stumble upon the unusual piece and wonder how it is, after all these years, still stuck to the mountain’s top.
Despite the beauty of the scene- a mountain with a big engine on top-, it reminds us of a very tragic crash. In fact, this complicated piece of metal belongs to a plane that crashed in 1969, killing eight people.
A tragic crash
But the story of this crash is, indeed, a strange and unusual one. In November of the same year, 1969, the aircraft, a Lockheed 749A, flew from Faro, a municipality in Portugal, without being able to land.
The airplane was expected to deliver a cargo to the Republic of Biafra, a state in West Africa, which existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970. The cargo flight, carrying ammunition for the former African republic, had a stopover in São Tomé, an African island nation close to the equator.
A Lockheed L-749 constellation. / Ph. DR
However, while flying over Morocco, the crew reported engine problems. According to several sources, the airplane’s crew «encountered engine problems and informed ATC they want to divert to the nearest airport». In an attempt to do so, the Lockheed 749A «hit Mount Tibherine», Summit Post recalled.
It was on November 28 that this plane disappeared and no one heard of it again. Days after the crash, «search and rescue operations were suspended when no trace of the aircraft, or the eight people aboard, could be found», wrote Atlas Obscura.
Surprisingly, and almost two years after the tragic crash, the remains of the disappeared plane were discovered. On July 18, 1970, mountaineers climbing the Toubkal region found «derbis on the slop of the mountain, at an altitude of 3,800 meters», Summit Post reported.
It was later revealed by the Biafran government that «3 of the 4 engines of the plane stopped working resulting in the crash».
Years after the crash, the remains of this unfortunate plane are still there, telling the story of this trip that did not have an end. And to discover these pieces scattered along the Atlas Mountains you will have to follow precise instructions.
According to Summit Post, «if you hike up the west Face of the mountain you will encounter the propeller of the aircraft which is put up straight to mark the trail». «Besides the propeller, many more parts are encountered when hiking up this side of the mountain», the same source concluded.
