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Old 6th Feb 2008, 08:36
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WHBM
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Munich accident 1958

50 years ago today.

The Airspeed Ambassador was coming out of BEA service at the time, they had been in service only a few years but were all withdrawn by 6 months after the accident. Wondering why the type was used for the flight instead of a Viscount, which BEA had a very large fleet of by 1958.

Was it just there were plenty of spare ones around for the charter ?

Was no turbine fuel available at Belgrade ? There were no other turbine operators scheduled into Belgrade in 1958.

Was the end of the Ambassador hastened as a type with BEA due to the adverse publicity ? Actually all the contemporary news articles I have seen call it an "Elizabethan", the BEA class name (at the time BEA used their own aircraft type names rather than those of the manufacturer for several types). I doubt many of the subsequent passengers knew the connection.
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