Originally Posted by
bobdh478
Even with extra manning it would've been a very tired crew by the time they got to journeys end. What would today's working time directive made of it. Little wonder there were so many accidents.
Don't forget the accident flight was westbound, the accident happening just at the end of the first short leg from Amsterdam. Heavy crews going all the way was the norm then, like on a ship, they did not slip until they got to New York, in part because the intermediate points were so unreliable and weather-dependent that you couldn't be sure which ones might get used. Sometimes they didn't even slip at the destination, aircraft layovers of a couple of days before returning can be seen in timetables of the era.
W/O crew were different to radio operators as their principal Wireless role was sending and receiving Morse, communicated by notes with the flying crew. Again, practice just like a ship.
The legends did seem to come to unfortunate ends. BOAC's O P Jones landed a Strat short at Goose Bay in the 1950s (no injuries) and said, actually quite commendably, "that's it for me".