Death Cruiser Flight Crew
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Vaucluse, France.
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Davaar: nearly correct. It was the tour of East Africa. The Argonaut was G-ALHK 'Atalanta' and the date she set foot back on British soil as Queen Elizabeth II was 7th February 1952. Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, was standing at the foot of the aircraft steps to meet her.
There was a plaque to this effect mounted on the bulkhead of the rear cocktail lounge. I've seen it. You see, I flew on 'HK on the 29th of June 1956, as an unaccompanied minor, to Accra, via Tripoli and Kano. The stewardess took me back to take a look at it. (No jokes about The Golden Rivet please!) It was only a brief visit because the grown-ups were partaking of the alcohol.
They might have been knocking them back a bit more heavily than normal - if that was possible - due to a certain fact of which I was oblivious. Five days earlier, Argonaut G-ALHE had crashed just after takeoff at Kano, into an approaching storm, with considerable loss of life. There were thirty-two fatalities out of forty-five aboard, including three crew members. Other than the fact that I was at boarding school, and the news must have been deliberately kept from me, I'm astonished that I didn't hear about the accident until I reached Accra and my parents told me!
Last edited by Georgeablelovehowindia; 11th Mar 2007 at 18:18.