I managed to find the Turkish DC-10 memorial in the Ermenonville forest some years ago. It was difficult to locate and you can only reach it on foot as far as I remember. The self is not very striking but what I was amazed by is that there were pieces of wreckage, a burnt lifejacket and a passenger shoe left there which presumably got passed over during the initial investigation. There is still a very noticeable difference among the trees in the forest. Many thousands of trees were destroyed in the area of the crash but these were later replaced and the growth of younger trees is still obvious from the air.
J’ai réussi à trouver le mémorial du DC-10 dans la forêt d’Ermenonville, il y a quelques années. Il est difficile à localiser et vous ne pouvez le rejoindre qu’à pied, autant que je me rappelle. J’ai été surpris par ce qu’il y avait des morceaux de l’avion, un gilet de sauvetage brûlé, la chaussure gauche d’un passager. Il existe encore une différence très sensible entre les arbres dans la forêt. Plusieurs milliers d’arbres ont été détruits sur le site de l’accident, mais ils ont été replantés plus tard, et la présence de jeunes arbres reste évidente.
The memorial for the passengers and crew of TC-JAV / Le mémorial pour les passagers et l’équipage du TC-JAV
Le crash Memorial
Courtesy of Bruno Druesne. Note a poem to the left transcribed below / Contribution de Bruno Druesne. Remarque : un poème à gauche ci-dessous
Parts of the DC-10 still remain after thirty years. Courtesy of Bruno Druesne. / Eléments du DC-10, après plus de trente ans. Contribution de Bruno Druesne
Contribution de Bruno Druesne
The granite memorial with the names of the victims engraved in stone. Courtesy of Bruno Druesne / Le mémorial de granit avec les noms des victimes gravés dans la pierre. Contribution de Bruno Druesne
Courtesy of Bruno Druesne / Contribution de Bruno Druesne
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Une vue de la forêt d’Ermenonville ‘Google Earth’ où le DC-10 s’est écrasé
Localisation du Mémorial
49° 8′ 44.15″ N 2° 38′ 5.40″ E
A 700 m de la baraque de Chaalis. Contribution de Bruno Druesne
Un lieu de mémoire.Contribution de Bruno Druesne
S’inscrire.Contribution de Bruno Druesne
Richard Bolai / Bruno Druesne, All Rights Reserved, 2010
Path to Ermenonville, Paris 
54 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 7, 2008 at 11:37 am
Brendan
As a small child i can remember seeing this horrific smash on television. I think it was the worst in the world ever back then; and not hard to see why.The first accident involving a fully laden wide body airliner since they came into service.I plan to take a trip on eurostar to paris soon and will visit the accident site to pay my respects. A terrible tragedy for everyone involved.God bless everyone who were on board. Best wishes Brendan Kershaw
May 15, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Tim Raper
I remember this event even though I was very young at the time.
The ‘lollipop lady’ who used to help me and my fellow pupils across the road outside our school was on board.
I have been trying to find a passenger manifest in the hope that I can pick out her name.
February 8, 2024 at 4:29 am
Anonymous
I have a book called destination disaster. It has all the names & nationalities in the last pages. It details the whole scandal & why it should not have happened.
June 25, 2008 at 6:17 pm
David
Ive just watched a documentary on this crash , and remember when it happened. Such a tragic and unnecccessary crash.
The U.S.A built DC 10 became a “No fly Plane for myself and many others I know. Its record of incidents of trouble is a discrace.
I was shocked to find out during this documentary ,it wasn’t an acciident, Mcdonald Douglas knew about the problem with the cargo door during pressure tests in development- Such a shame that Giant corporations put the lives of others in mortal danger due to their Greed.
To all the vitims – RIP. I hope to visit the site to pay my repects one day.
December 17, 2008 at 7:28 pm
guy marcon
Félicitation chers messieurs Druesne et Bolai pour votre travail accompli sur ce site qui nous est très cher.
L’an dernier en juillet nous avons repeint les noms des victimes sur les stèles côté droit en sortant.
Qui était François Duesne ?
Dimanche 21 décembre nous serons présents sur le site afin de nous recueillir à la mémoire de toutes les victimes.
Avez-vous pris connaissance du livre “destination désastre” de Paul eddy,elaine potter, bruce page de chez Grasset ?
Bien cordialement.
guy et vetty Marcon
February 25, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Trevor Dangerfield
I was just a child at the time I’m now 51, it has stayed with me all my life I won’t fly because of it I would like to know who was Trevor Vincent Dangerfield (company director)?
February 26, 2009 at 11:48 am
Richard Bolai
Dear Trevor,
It is very unfortunate that the impact of this particular accident has caused such an effect on your life and preventing you from flying over these thirty years. One thing is clear in that their sacrifice since then has make air travel safer and the McDonald Douglas DC-10 has retired. As for the passenger that carried your name, that is an intrigued left to fate.
This accident continues to live in the minds and hearts of thousands of people. We thank them for their sacrifice.
February 21, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Henry
The Google Map location did not copy properly as it’s too large.
Location: http://tiny.cc/fHKMz
… or copy and paste into Google Earth or Google Maps etc.:- 49°08’44.17″N 002°38’05.39″E
December 24, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Richard White
It was a Saturday morning here in Canada, and I was driving to work when a news report came over the radio. I remember thinking how terrible to know someone on that flight. I thought no more about it until that evening. I got an unexpected phone call from brother. His wife Glenda was on that plane.
January 18, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Victor Nicol
Several members of Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club perished on that flight, following a weekend rugby tour to Paris. It took many years for the club to recover.
There is a small memorial to them in the clubhouse.
September 1, 2014 at 4:21 pm
Brenda Slater
My brother, wife and daughter were on this plane, and we didn’t know. They had been on holiday to Spain and diverted to Paris because of a British Airways strike, they were loaded on to this fateful flight. Its 40 years on and the memories of this awful day are still with us. Luckily we managed to identify belongings and their bodies were found and returned to the UK in now a family grave. We will never forget them. John aged 33, Gloria aged 31 and Nadine Slater aged 3.
September 19, 2014 at 5:06 pm
Anonymous
Born 1966 they the airline companies even rob that
September 19, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Anonymous
if I was not born in 1966. The B747 /DC10 would not have been built. The truth. They robbed how to build the aircraft.
October 14, 2014 at 7:41 pm
website
I was recommended this web site by way of my cousin. I’m not certain whether this
submit is written by him as no one else recognize such specified
approximately my difficulty. You’re amazing! Thank you!
October 26, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Ann Moriyama
Myself, my sister and our two brothers lost our parents in this avoidable disaster. They were returning from a week in Spain and were put on the DC-10 because of the BA strike at Heathrow.
For the first time since the crash some members of our torn apart family were able to visit the Memorial in the forest this past April. We were sad to see that many of the victims’ names are not listed, including those of our parents Dr. Anders and Mrs. Peggy Qunta.
Please does anyone know who was responsible for listing the names at the Memorial site and how we can get the omission of names rectified?
December 18, 2016 at 6:01 am
Jim Bland
Ann, I understand the relatives of victims were asked to contribute to the cost of the memorial, and so many names were not inscribed. I am so glad my father contributed, so that my mother’s name could be put there. She was returning to the UK from a visit to Istanbul with a friend, and like your family, was on that flight only because of the BA strike. I visited the site for the first time in September. It was a very moving occasion.
I do not know how one can get names added to the memorial, but it looks to me like at least the last 2 (James and Susan Overton) are not original. There is certainly room for a few more.
December 18, 2016 at 1:38 pm
Ann Moriyama
Thank you Jim for writing. I was working in East Africa in the early ’70s & my younger sister in the UK may have received some info. about a plan for a memorial but she was so distressed for so long, (& caring for our two younger brothers at the time), that it is possible that she put all correspondence on one side and never opened any of it. Even if she had seen it none of us were at the time in a position to contribute to the cost. I seem to remember it took 7 years for the relatives of the victims to be given compensation & ours was all used on necessities. I am really surprised that the full cost of the memorial did not fall on those responsible for the disaster, ie.
the manufacturers of the plane. That they eventually went out of business as a result leaves no one to contact that I can think of about adding the missing names. We also saw the 2 new names added when we visited in 2014 but unless their relatives are on this site and see this I can’t think where to try next. I will be 80 next year and my sister is dying of an incurable disease so the need to put our parents names on the memorial is really urgent. Thanks for your care & my great sympathy on the loss of your mother.
December 18, 2016 at 10:50 pm
Jim
Ann, Elsewhere in this blog, the guy who runs it says, regarding adding names to the memorial, “…but of course we can help you in adding any name. Please contact us (our victimes THY981 association) on my email bdruesne@orange.fr. Kind regards, Bruno Druesne .”
December 18, 2016 at 11:23 pm
Ann Moriyama
Thank you Jim. I had not seen that & it could be very helpful. I will follow it up. Best regards, Ann
March 3, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Michael Chard
I lost my father, Gary Ray Chard, 41 years ago today in this crash. He was a husband and father of four children living in Paris, France. I was just a young ten year old boy. This disaster turned my family upside down. Eventually time softened the hurt, but even today as a father of four myself, I feel the tremendous loss of my father’s absence these many years. I still miss him very much.
March 5, 2015 at 5:04 am
cláudia
Não fui a Ermenonville, mas ter visto o nome do Amadeu em uma lápide, permitiu-me de certa forma ritualizar sua morte depois de muitos anos. E isso me fez bem, por isso agradeço com meu obrigada, merci e thanks
March 24, 2015 at 11:53 pm
Peter
The girl who I sat next to at school died in this crash, she was so gentle, loved writing poems and for someone so quiet to die so violently really does take some understanding especially as it was preventable a very sad,shocking tragedy she will always be 10 to me
April 2, 2015 at 7:09 pm
anon
After my mum won a trip to France in charity raffle my parents had tickets for this flight. However due to the strike my parents seats were reallocated after my mum insisted on buying a last minute bottle of perfume from duty free. My parents were in the middle of an arguement about missing the departure gate closure when this tragedy happened, she said the airport was noisy especially with the strike etc suddenly went silent. My father was so drunk by-time he got a flight he had to be helped, mum had to give a massive tip for the London cab driver to take them home, falling into bed. My grandparents who lived in Hull didnt have a phone so my parents waited until the next morning to call a neighbor in the mean time they had been informed and spent the night inconsolable. Anyway,if it wasn’t for a bottle of perfume my parents would have been on this plane and I would not be here, something my mum cherished until this day and my dad never flew again.
December 21, 2016 at 8:20 am
Brenda Slater
A new website has been created for relatives of the disaster, called
Paris 1974 Families Association.
December 21, 2016 at 11:10 am
Ann Moriyama
Brenda: Many thanks for this. Our family members had no idea that there was an association of relatives of the disaster or that they met at the site on the 40th anniversary, (as I see from what is on the site so far). I hope that this is progress in my hunt to find out how we can have our parents’ names added to the memorial.
December 21, 2016 at 11:20 am
Brenda Dlater
Thanks Ann, this is a fairly new group which had been formed. I met some of them for the first time last year. My email is brendaslater@icloud.com. I will ask Helen (my contact) how you can be added to the list of family members. Please send me your email address to me and I can pass it on for you. Brenda Slater.
September 28, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Emma Keenan
Dear Ann,
The 40th Anniversary gathering was quite emotional & I am glad I attended. I am also trying to get my fathers name added to the memorial stones in the forest. Could you contact me & let me know how you have got on – perhaps you could email me; ekeenan@sky.com. I can if you wish add you to the contact list.
June 16, 2020 at 8:07 am
Lieven
Hello Ann,
FYI this is the present status of the memorial as seen last march 3rd
Best Regards
Patrick
https://lievensblog.com/2020/03/04/ermenonville-earlier-this-afternoon/
My great cousin, Willy Hayes, (on nr9) was on board
June 17, 2020 at 9:59 am
Ann & Jerome Moriyama
Hello Patrick,
That was very kind of you to send the detailed photos and I send commiserations on the loss of your relative.
We visited as a family, (me, my husband, 2 sons, daughter in law, grandson aged 2), last year and hope to go again at least for the 50th anniversary. For the fortieth Anniversary we went a month late with my sister also, but she passed away from a long and dire illness in February 2019 without having had the comfort of knowing that our parents’ names had been added to the memorial..
We are still hoping that somehow I can find out how to add names to the memorial: have you any ideas as to how folk have been able to do that inn recent years? There are certainly still a lot of names missing.
Best wishes to you and again ‘thanks’ for your message.
Ann
>
March 22, 2017 at 5:46 pm
Ernie vargas
my grandfather was on this flight and he called my mother from paris a few hours before the flight to give instructions o n how to supervise his business, my mom said to him ,dad dont be silly I will see you later, but my grandpa said, just keep in mind what I just told you , we never know!! he boarded the plane for london and 1 hour later he was dead!
May 31, 2018 at 9:12 am
Paul c rey
I remember when this awful disaster happened, and to think that i have been on many a DC10 since then, but tried not to think about this when i flew on them, my heart will always go out to the poor victims.
August 31, 2019 at 1:37 pm
Philip Graham
I was still at school at the time studying A level French. Our French Assistante, Danielle Nguyen, had flown home to Marseilles for her English exams at university. She had been booked on the BA flight back to London but rebooked on this flight via Paris. We were waiting for her in class the following day not knowing why she hadn’t turned up. Our French teacher made enquiries and then came to break the news to us. As well as our teaching assistant she had become a personal friend as she was only 4 years older than me. Such a sad and tragic day. She was a lovely lady and was engaged to be married.
August 31, 2019 at 2:37 pm
Brenda Slater
How sad for you all. My brother and his wife and child had been to Spain on holiday and were due home the day before the crash. We had no idea they were all on this plane. They had been diverted to Paris because Heathrow was not accepting British planes. First they were put on an Air France plane but were told to get off as it had been overbooked. Their baggage was left on the Air France plane and came home – unfortunately they didn’t.
September 8, 2019 at 4:05 am
Michael Enzmann
I was taking a graduate level course on material failures at the time of the crash. Our instructor entered our classroom carrying a DC-10 cargo door latch and proceeded to lecture on engineering errors and the cost in lives. I never forgot this and shortly after we moved to Chantilly, France, not that far from the crash site, my wife and I searched for and finally found the memorial. Over the next 10 years I spent several afternoons in that forest thinking about the victims, and how my career evolved into investigating accidents and training engineers with what was brought home to me by that professor in 1974.
June 18, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Lieven
To Ann & Jerome Moriyama,
Thank you for your message. Could you please give me an email address, please ?
Thanks in advance
Patrick
June 18, 2020 at 10:05 pm
Ann Moriyama
Thanks Patrick.
June 18, 2020 at 10:07 pm
Anonymous
It seems that my email address was not recorded to you Patrick, so here it is again:
June 18, 2020 at 10:10 pm
Anonymous
Sorry Patrick: I seem to not be doing what the site requires to give you my email address! Trying again now: moriyama@eircom.net
May 30, 2021 at 8:37 am
David Alan Glover aka David Tudor
I was booked on the flight but had been drinking late with a friend in Paris the night before and overslept. I arrived at the airport just as the plane was taxiing out. I’d told my parents the flight number so when they saw the news they thought I was dead. I was initially distressed at missing the flight but I caught a later plane not knowing about the disaster.I was staggered when I arrived home to find my mother and father so distraught. These days I don’t worry if I’m late for things.
July 25, 2021 at 1:13 am
Albert Neal
That must have been a terrible shock for you. I am glad that you survived. Best wishes to you and your family.
April 9, 2023 at 8:06 pm
Paul Delaney
My father Ronald Delaney died aged 47 on this flight, I was only 10 and it ripped my family apart. I visited the memorial once in the 90’s. Does anyone know if anything is happening next March to commemorate the 50th anniversary?
Thanks
Paul Delaney
October 30, 2023 at 8:10 pm
Anonymous
Our aunt Helen Neale died on this flight. We are planning to return to the memorial in the forest on the anniversary, probably around midday as the disaster happened shortly after 1230
November 3, 2023 at 11:34 am
Anonymous
(1230 was the British time, in France it would have been 1130)
December 19, 2023 at 11:36 am
Anonymous
Please disregard my erroneous comment on relative timing difference – I was unable to edit the mistake
December 19, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Anonymous
I live in Mortefontaine, on the edge of the Ermenonville Forest. I walk a lot and know the site of the crash very well. The 50 year anniversary of this terrible event is coming up and I was wondering if any of you on this blog was aware of any events planned in commemoration in March 2024. I am also trying to trace two school friends from Yorkshire whose parents were on the plane. They didn’t return to school after the crash and we lost touch. Please feel free to contact me directly. My email address is lucy.peel.yates@wanadoo.fr
Many thanks, Lucy
February 8, 2024 at 3:41 am
Anonymous
I was wondering if there would be a service to remember those who passed away that day as well. Or, more simply, is there a local florist through whom flowers can be purchased and left at the site?
February 14, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Anonymous
Bonjour, good afternoon,
A commemorative mass is planned at 3pm on Sunday 3rd March 2024 at the church in Fontaine Chaalis.
The full address for the church is:
12 Grande Rue
60300 FONTAINE CHAALIS
Kind regards,
Lucy Peel Yates
lucy.peel.yates@wanadoo.fr
February 19, 2024 at 4:03 am
Anonymous
we are coming from Australia my wife’s sister was lost on that flight we will attend on the 3 march
February 20, 2024 at 11:41 am
Anonymous
Good morning,
There is also talk of a commemoration taking place at the memorial site at 12h30 on Sunday 3rd March.
I am not quite sure who is organising this but will post more information here if I find out anything more precise.
Kind regards,
Lucy Peel Yates
February 23, 2024 at 11:43 am
lucypeelyates
Good morning, bonjour,
I received an email confirmation yesterday from the admin assistant at the municipal office in Fontaine Chaalis to say that there will be a commemorative ceremony at the site of the monument in the forest at 12h30 on Sunday 3rd March followed by a mass at the church in Fontaine Chaalis at 15h00.
Kind regards,
Lucy
March 2, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Polly
We lost our mother on this flight. I’m one of five children and the total feeling of loss has never left me. I was 18 when this happened and my younger sister was 8.
We have visited the crash site in the forest and found some peace in the visit. We met with the then Mayor of Ermenonville who talked us through some of the events of the crash.
We will be praying and thinking of our mother on Sunday 3 March 2024 and also of all the other victims families.
Rest in Peace
Jean Burris Wife and mother of 5
We will always love you xxx
Polly Hedges
March 3, 2024 at 3:34 pm
Anonymous
My best friend and her family were on this flight and today, 50 years later, my heart still aches for this childhood loss.
While I have not been able to visit this memorial, I am there in spirit today with others around the world who still mourn family and friends lost on this day.
May they rest in peace.
March 4, 2024 at 5:01 pm
Anonymous
We are a group of relatives/friends of the victims of this terrible accident – if you have lost or known someone who was on this plane Turkish Airlines 981 – please join our Facebook/Messenger page – DC10 Paris Air Disaster 3 March 1974.
You are not alone.
Sincerely
Brenda Slater
brendaslater@icloud.com
March 3, 2024 at 3:36 pm
Anonymous
Remembering teacher Joyce Wilson and her husband John. You have stayed forever in our hearts. Thinking of you and all the other victims of this terrible tragedy. May you all rest in eternal peace and God Bless you all.
susan