Christmas Eve 1958 was thick with fog in the London and Southern areas.
A Bristol Britannia 312 operated by BOAC crashed near Dorset killing 2 of the 5 crew and all 7 passengers.
I also was very young at the time...I just googled as something in the 50's was at the back of my mind, reading your post.
On 24 December 1958, much of the south of England was covered in thick fog
making travel by any means hazardous. Many aircraft had to be diverted as
visibility
was below the minimum permissible distance at most of the airports on the south
coast. To a
pilot
who was less than aware of the conditions on the ground and the altitude at
which they were flying, this fog would have an appearance very similar to normal
cloud
cover
. For the pilots of G-AOVD this may have added to the illusion that
they were at a much higher altitude and that they were reading the instruments
correctly.
1958 Bristol Britannia 312 crash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To go back on topic(ish)..How did SEN at that time play host to 50 a/c?.