PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Death of King George VI and accession of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Old 7th Feb 2022, 10:58
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ICM
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Bishops Stortford, UK
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The print version of today's Times includes a 4-page pullout facsimile of part of the 7 February 1952 edition. It includes a fairly detailed outline of the rapid return flight arrangements made by BOAC to bring HM back to the UK, routing Entebbe ("now has the longest runway in Africa") rather than Eastleigh, to El Adem (crew change) and London. A Dakota (presumably RAF) had taken the Royal party to the Lodge at Nanyuki and flew them to Entebbe, to which the BOAC Argonaut had flown from Mombasa. The onset of a pretty ferocious thunderstorm delayed departure from Entebbe by 2 hours. There's even a progress report: "At 1am the aircraft was 315 miles southwest of Khartoum, and had covered 921 miles from Entebbe. Its groundspeed was 238 miles an hour and altitude 16,500 feet. There was no cloud."
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