Originally Posted by
Herod
Phoenix. I agree with you. Reading "Star Dust Falling", the fatality figures are horrendous.
For every 100 million passenger miles flown by BOAC, 2.3 passengers had died in crashes, all North American carriers averaged 3.78. BSAA's figure was 61.6.
Or put another way, with BOAC, one passenger had died for every 18,900 flown. BSAA was killing one passenger for every 385 that they flew.
I think Don Bennett had a lot to answer for.
Sadly "Star Dust Falling" is responsible for a lot of misinformation about BSAA and is something of a character assassination of Don Bennett. Bennett's son was horrified when he read the book (having co-operated with the author fully at the research stage) as he felt his father was seriously misrepresented.
As for the accident figures, yes they are unquestionably very serious for BSAA, but the figures in the book are not accurate. From official sources the true figures are - for every 100 million miles flown by BOAC, 4 passengers had died (not 2.3), the figure was 11 for BEA and 48 for BSAA (not 61.6). Similarly, with BOAC one passenger had died for every 9,733 flown (not 18,900) and for BSAA the figure was 762 (not 385).