1948 France plane crash

On May 13, 1948, a de Havilland DH.104 Dove crashed in Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, killing President John F. Kennedy's sister Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, her partner Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, and two others. The flight had originally departed from Croydon, London, with eight passengers and two crew members.

## Accident

On May 13, 1948, Lady Hartington and Lord Fitzwilliam were flying from Paris to the French Riviera for a vacation aboard a de Havilland DH.104 Dove. At 3:30 in the afternoon, their plane took off, reaching an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Approximately one hour into the flight, radio contact was lost with the plane when it entered the region near Vienne, which was also close to the center of a storm.

The plane's four occupants endured twenty minutes of severe turbulence which bounced their small plane up and down as much as several thousand feet at a time. When they finally cleared the clouds, they instantly discovered the plane was in a dive and moments away from impact, and they attempted to pull up.

The stress of the turbulence, coupled with the sudden change of direction, tore loose one of the wings, followed by both engines, and finally the tail. The plane's fuselage then spun into the ground seconds later, coming to rest nose-down in a ravine, after striking terrain at Plateau du Coiron, near Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, France. Lady Hartington was instantly killed, along with Fitzwilliam, the pilot Peter Townshend and the navigator Arthur Freeman.

## Investigation

French and British authorities were involved in the investigation of the plane crash. Investigators concluded the aircraft broke apart in mid-air due to extreme aerodynamic stress. The plane entered a severe thunderstorm and endured 20 minutes of violent turbulence that caused it to bounce thousands of feet at a time.

### Cause

The investigation found that when the aircraft finally cleared the clouds, it was in a steep dive. The pilot's immediate attempt to pull up, combined with the existing stress from turbulence, caused a wing, both engines, and the tail to tear loose before the fuselage struck the ground.French gendarmes reached the site on Mt. Le Coran the morning after the crash to recover the bodies. Lady Hartington’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., traveled to the site to identify her remains.

## Aftermath

Major outlets like _The New York Times_ reported the event on May 14, 1948, under headlines such as "Air Crash Kills Lady Hartington, Daughter of Ex-Envoy J. P. Kennedy". Other papers, including the Schenectady Gazette and the Berkeley Daily Gazette, also carried reports. In the immediate aftermath of the plane crash, the Kennedy family prioritized damage control to protect their burgeoning political reputation.  The family actively worked to keep the death unpublicized because Lady Hartington was traveling with Lord Fitzwilliam, whom she was having an affair with. While the crash was publicized, newspaper accounts at the time did not make the nature of the relationship.

Lady Hartington was buried on the Cavendish family burial grounds at St Peter's Churchyard, Edensor outside of Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England. Her father was the only family member to attend the funeral, arranged by the Devonshires. Her mother Rose Kennedy had refused to attend her daughter's funeral, instead entering a hospital for medical reasons. Her brother Jack, was too devastated and he couldn’t bring himself to go to the funeral as a result.

## Infobox (aircraft occurrence)

- **image**: File:De Havilland DH104 Dove 8 ‘D-INKA’ (31931252018).jpg
- **caption**: The aircraft involved in the accident
- **occurrence type**: Accident
- **summary**: Loss of control due to pilot error caused by a severe thunderstorm
- **site**: Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, France
- **aircraft type**: de Havilland DH.104 Dove
- **operator**: Private
- **tail number**: G-AJOU
- **origin**: Croydon Airport, London, England
- **stopover**: Paris–Le Bourget Airport, near Paris
- **destination**: Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- **occupants**: 4
- **passengers**: 8 (6 disembarked)
- **crew**: 2
- **fatalities**: 4
- **survivors**: 6