I think the one lost to the attitude indicator screw was a BEA Comet 4. It was certainly much later than than the Comet 1 disasters.
I undrstood that the problem with take off on the early Comet 1 was that if the aeroplane was rotated beyond a certain angle, with the mains still on the ground (and it didn't need to be much of an angle) the wing would produce excess drag and insuficient lift, so the aeroplane either wouldn't take off or would not climb away once airbourne and may sink back on. I think this lead to subsequent aeroplanes having to demonstarte 'min speed unstick', to ensure that even if the tail is scraping along the runway, the aeroplane will lift off and climb away safely.
SSD