Originally Posted by Poster on a different forum
The wife just got back from work (ATC) and told me one of her colleagues got a call from a C210 saying they had autopilot problems. He then watched the SSR show a decent of 8000ft in two turns of the radar.
L'aigle in Normandie. Both pilots killed sadly.
ETA It took off from Rouen and was cruising IFR at FL160 when they ran into trouble.
Assuming this is the same incident, doesn't seem to tally with the reports of a structural failure immediately after take-off?