The aircraft, operated by
Syndicat National d'Étude des Transports Aériens (SNETA), was operating a mail flight from
Croydon Airport,
United Kingdom to
Brussels-Evere Airport, Belgium. It had departed from Croydon at 12:25. One witness, a
gendarme, reported hearing "an explosion" at 13:32 and seeing the structural collapse of the aircraft before it came down in the
English Channel off
Calais, France. The accident was reported by the Gendarme by
telegraph to Calais. The report was passed on to the Gendarmerie at
Boulogne and
Gravelines. Various fishing boats, yachts and
submarines were dispatched to search for the aircraft. The wreckage was located off the coast. The accident was also witnessed by
Herbert Sullivan, on board the
yacht Zola. He sent a
radiogram reporting the accident. A bag of mail was recovered by Sullivan, it was subsequently forwarded to authorities in Brussels. The
South Eastern and Chatham Railway ship received the radiogram and relayed it to the
General Post Office in London. The wreckage of the aircraft was later reported by the steamship to be off the coast of Belgium (). Both crew, pilot and mechanic, were reported as missing. The accident was the first involving the Farman Goliath in civil service. ==References==