Comet crashes

[gruntie]

On my drive home this afternoon I heard several ads on the radio for a program tonight on "Seconds from Disaster" or something (I don't get that satellite stuff) about the Comet: "was it a design fault, or......gasp....sabotage?.

Sounds like another load of sensationalist drivel. Is it a new prog, or a repeat of that rubbish of a few years ago that upset everyone?

[DozyWannabe]

No idea, but that programme does tend to over-dramatise and over-simplify things. It usually takes the point of view of the contemporary investigation and in the Comet's case, sabotage was considered at one point during the original investigation.

Obviously anyone with a bit of background on the subject will know full well that the sabotage theory was a red herring.

[DaveO'Leary]

I might be corrected on this. Comet crashes were due to metal fatigue around f/d.

Dave

[DH106]

I think at least one Comet 4 was lost to sabatage - a BEA Comet 4B near Rhodes. Perhaps they're trying to mix that in and create something.......:ugh: :*

[ATNotts]

Watched it last evening - too much dramatisation, and frankly nothing that anyone remotely interested in the Comet 1 saga would not already have known. I'm not sure how much factual; information someone new to the subject would have gleaned amid the froth either.

One thing that did intrigue me was which Comet did they use for the ground shots. The undercarriage and baggage door seemed Comet-ish though no shots of the whole aircraft were shown. Were the ground scenes filmed at Duxford, or perhaps Wroughton?

[bean]

How about the genuine Comet 1 at Cosford

[White Bear]

A bit of thread drift:
I watched this programme some time ago, the thing that stuck in my mind were the ground shots, and the contrast of such a beautiful modern looking jet powered aircraft to all the prewar looking cars in the car park!

It occurred to me that the designers of the Comet drove such cars to work every day. It’s hard to believe these ugly boxy cars that certainly lacked virtually every modern convenience they had just built into the Comet, would have considered a new car ‘state of the automotive art’ in the late 40’s!
I think it amazing that these same men could live with this remarkable technical divergence, and think it quite normal.
Regards,
White Bear.

[treadigraph]

DH106, I always though it was an Olympic Comet 4 near Rhodes. But I stand corrected (http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19671012-0&lang=en)!

[DH106]

Glad to be of service :)

G-ARCO, the BEA Comet in the Rhodes accident was actually a 4B not a 4 as mentioned by that linked ASN page.

For anyone seriously interested in the Comet, I can heartily recommend Martin Painter's excellent book, from Air-Britain.

[Lukeafb1]

The Comet 4B - 1967/68(?) Rhodes crash was caused by a bomb. It was (wrongly) believed that the Turkish Cypriot leader was on board and the bomb was aimed at him.

I was stationed at Akrotiri at the time and one of our squadron SNCO's wife and young son were on board the aircraft.

[henry crun]

I was stationed at Tangmere in Jan 1954 when there was a flap one weekend.
A Comet was reported to have gone down in the English channel off the coast of France.

Despite it being a weekend with almost everyone stood down, 29 Sqn had four aircraft airborne within 30 minutes.

The search was fruitless, understandably, because subsequent information revealed that the Comet had crashed off Elba !

We were never told where or why the location cockup occurred.