Flight from Goussainville: Inside the eerie French ghost town abandoned FORTY YEARS AGO by defiant inhabitants who refused to live underneath an airport flightpath
- Hundreds of Goussainville residents fled in 1973 after disaster struck
- Fourteen people were killed when a Concorde prototype crashed
- Villagers already begun leave after being driven away by noise of planes
It was once a thriving farming village where hundreds of people enjoyed rural French life.
But the 144 families of Goussainville fled 40 years ago turning the once picturesque village into a virtual ghost town.
A combination of change and disaster sealed the fate of the tiny historic village.
Villagers were driven away in droves by the constant air traffic streaming from the Charles de Gaulle airport.
Set just 12 miles north of Paris, residents were inundated with continual noise with dozens of planes flying low over the village as the planes took off and landed.
The town was now so close to the country’s largest airport in neighbouring Roissy that the noise from low-flying planes became unbearable to live with.
Residents of the old village watched as neighbours deserted their homes, trying to seek a quieter life.
And they fled even without selling their homes which were left standing empty.
However, irritation turned to tragedy when a Concorde prototype plane crashed in the village in 1973.
The supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashed during the Paris Air Show, killing all six people on board.
Eight others were killed on the ground.
The plane destroyed several buildings as well as a school, which was fortunately empty at the time.
By the end of the year the last of the 200 Goussainville had left.
Today, just a handful of families live among the dilapidated buildings.
The beautiful 14th century Eglise St. Pierre et St. Paul Church, which is classified as an historic monument, is one of the few buildings to have withstood the neglect.
Elsewhere, rustic buildings lie shuttered and buyers for the homes under the flight path still cannot be found.
Once majestic homes have been left to the elements and stand overgrown and dilapidated.
Despite the town's proximity to the French capital it seems no one wants to live in Goussainville.
