[1][2] During 1928, the French Service Technique de l'Aéronautique (the government body responsible for producing specifications for aircraft for the French armed forces) drew up requirements for a four-seat Multiplace de Combat, a multi-role aircraft capable of day and night bombing, reconnaissance and long–range escort duties.

[5] Many elements of the aircraft were designed to be readily demountable and, where feasible to do so, interchangeable; this eased maintenance and repair tasks.

[5] One of the more unusual features of the SPCA 30 was the ability to install and remove a detachable cabin from the underside of the fuselage.

Multiple panels across this covering were attached using screws that permitted rapid removal for ease of inspection of elements within the wing’s interior, such as the supports for the flight controls.

[5] Each spar flange consisted of a pair of continuous semi-cylindrical duralumin plates and a U-shaped member that was riveted together as to form an almost circular cross section.

[7] The framework of each fuselage consisted of a pair of triangularly-braced girders that joined at intervals to transverse frames.

[7] The central cabin was extended by a balcony that projected roughly 13 foot in front of the wing, it shared a similar structure to that of the fuselages.

The aft compartment contained the two pilot stations, which were arranged in tandem and provided with dual flight control and supported by a pair of raised girders.

[7] The landing gear was composed of two independent symmetrical parts, each being fitted with a special steel axle, a tube of variable thickness attached by a ball-and-socket joint to the lower flange of the front spar of the central section of the wing under the side of the cabin.

[8] An oblique fore-and-aft steel strut was attached to the lower flange of the rear wing spar under the centre of each fuselage.

A vertical strut provided with a Messier-supplied oleo-pneumatic shock absorber was attached to the lower flange of the front spar beneath the centre of the engine bearer.

The accident was eventually found to be due to flutter, caused by weakness of the wings in torsion (i.e. twisting), which was exacerbated by the unbalanced control surfaces.