BOAC London - Singapore early 50s
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Didn't BOAC stop serving Cairo in the late 50's due to the repercussions of the Suez crisis? We lived in East Africa at the time, and I vaguely remember BOAC African flights being routed through Tripoli or Benghazi during this time. Our tribe did land at Cairo in September 1958 as pax in a KLM DC6B, en-route from Amsterdam, to be warmly welcomed as long-lost British friends by airport staff, so maybe BOAC hadn't returned to Cairo by that date??
By then most if not all of BOAC's East and South African flights were probably operated by Britannia 102's. I can remember their unreliability being a frequent topic of conversation among the adults (I was all of 8 and 9 years old at the time) if my memory serves me correctly. Would that have been the well-documented engine ice problem?
I do remember being on the roof terrace at Khartoum airport when the inaugural Comet 4 flight landed, en-route from London to Jo'burg. Everyone stood up and clapped as it taxied in. And I can remember being in transit at Rome airport when a very noisy jet took off which was the inaugural Caravelle flight Paris-Rome-Istanbul, in May 1959.
Regarding the Stratocruiser, Pan American had a litany of incidents with the aircraft in the 1950's including the Pacific ditching already mentioned. They also lost a Strat. over the Amazon jungle in 1952, and yet another Strat. was forced to ditch in the Pacific in 1957. There were no survivors in either tragedy. Another Strat. narrowly avoided having to ditch in the Pacific and made an emergency landing on Johnson Island. In each case the cause was, or was surmised to be, engine overspeed and/or loss of a propeller blade.
By then most if not all of BOAC's East and South African flights were probably operated by Britannia 102's. I can remember their unreliability being a frequent topic of conversation among the adults (I was all of 8 and 9 years old at the time) if my memory serves me correctly. Would that have been the well-documented engine ice problem?
I do remember being on the roof terrace at Khartoum airport when the inaugural Comet 4 flight landed, en-route from London to Jo'burg. Everyone stood up and clapped as it taxied in. And I can remember being in transit at Rome airport when a very noisy jet took off which was the inaugural Caravelle flight Paris-Rome-Istanbul, in May 1959.
Regarding the Stratocruiser, Pan American had a litany of incidents with the aircraft in the 1950's including the Pacific ditching already mentioned. They also lost a Strat. over the Amazon jungle in 1952, and yet another Strat. was forced to ditch in the Pacific in 1957. There were no survivors in either tragedy. Another Strat. narrowly avoided having to ditch in the Pacific and made an emergency landing on Johnson Island. In each case the cause was, or was surmised to be, engine overspeed and/or loss of a propeller blade.
Paxing All Over The World
was 36 elapsed hours including a nightstop and several others. You must have been very tired by then !
A great aunt of mine, who lived in CPT recalled the days of the Flying Boat service from Southampton Water to Table Bay, with the Nile and Lake Victoria en route!
I can well believe that the long serving crews had hearing problems. My father was in Beaus and Mossies (+ sundry others) and he had 'high frequency deafness' from then on and it got steadily worse in his life. I gather that this was usual for crews that had uninsulated a/c and only the flying cap between them and the Merlins. When they went to Berlin and back, they could be up for eight hours, not to mention the noise of the guns, but that's another story.
My first long haul flight was not until 1965 on the LHR~JNB route with Rome and Nairobi and served by the magnificent VC-10.
This is a cracking thread. Thanks to all whose memories still work.
Thanks to all whose memories still work.
<From Ms WHBM .... "Don't I know it
>It's a shame to have to write the truth about the Handley Page Hermes, as my father was aircrew on the HP Halifax in WW2 and never said a bad word against them.
I never did a major piston-engined flight but a relative who travelled by hovercraft from Dover to Calais with me in recent years said the noise and vibration were very reminiscent of what it was like in a Trans Canada Connie from London to Vancouver, except that was 20 hours !
The basic Pratt engine had a good development pedigree, but the version put into the Stratocruiser/C-97 was just too complicated with 4 rows of cylinders in each engine, and when it burst it could do so spectacularly, sometimes with bad consequences.
The Wright engine was more power from a more compact unit but was really overdeveloped and overstressed, and was nothing but trouble to the end. It was initially used on the B-29 in the Pacific in WW2, and I've an account of the most enormous heap of defective Wright radials, maybe 50 feet high, taken out of B-29s at Guam by the end of the war. Wright didn't really have the production facilities to turn them out in quantity, although Chrysler were drafted in to assist.
Paxboy, It's still a high point of the week if I am driving down the M4 to Bristol and a VC-10 on a training circuit from Lyneham comes overhead. Never rode in one of those either.
Regarding the water tank contamination (how did THAT get into this thread ?), the railway has the same problem in restaurant cars, etc, and has long installed an ultra-violet filter that does a flash purification of the water as it comes through. Surely aircraft can do the same ?
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water tank thing was added as it was part of the challenge
food water parts mechanics navigation. I doubt UV light will purify water in a tank.
-was the water drinkable in say cairo airport or basra in early 50s?
-why did planes have 4 crew: pilot co pilot radio officer navigation officer
-were the radio officer and nav officer qualified to fly?
-----------
off topic but a favorite place
http://w1.901.telia.com/%7Eu90121659..._final_SBH.jpg
food water parts mechanics navigation. I doubt UV light will purify water in a tank.
-was the water drinkable in say cairo airport or basra in early 50s?
-why did planes have 4 crew: pilot co pilot radio officer navigation officer
-were the radio officer and nav officer qualified to fly?
-----------
off topic but a favorite place
http://w1.901.telia.com/%7Eu90121659..._final_SBH.jpg
UV filters (not in the tank but in the outlet pipe) do indeed work, see:
http://www.plumbingsupply.com/uv.html
as an example.
Back to flying matters, aircraft of the 1950s often had 5 crew (Filght Engineer in addition to those stated) because equipment was much less automated and there was often simultaneous work for all of them.
Separate radio officer because not only were radios much more arduous to work but there were also elements of morse rather than speech transmission (for those who don't fly, there are still a few traces of this left nowadays, like the identification codes of VOR navigation beacons you tune into are transmitted in morse).
Navigator for all the charts and course calculations, also for doing celestial navigation by sextant then looking up everything in tables and doing paper calculations which is a time-consuming procedure.
Flight Engineer often the busiest person in the crew, looking after systems so un-automated compared to nowadays, particularly looking after 4 piston engines in flight for mixture, ignition, manifold pressure, rpm, all of that. A good flight engineer could save multiples of their salary in preventing engine damage by seeing problems coming. The FE was the last of these positions to survive, well into the jet age until the current generation of aircraft.
http://www.plumbingsupply.com/uv.html
as an example.
Back to flying matters, aircraft of the 1950s often had 5 crew (Filght Engineer in addition to those stated) because equipment was much less automated and there was often simultaneous work for all of them.
Separate radio officer because not only were radios much more arduous to work but there were also elements of morse rather than speech transmission (for those who don't fly, there are still a few traces of this left nowadays, like the identification codes of VOR navigation beacons you tune into are transmitted in morse).
Navigator for all the charts and course calculations, also for doing celestial navigation by sextant then looking up everything in tables and doing paper calculations which is a time-consuming procedure.
Flight Engineer often the busiest person in the crew, looking after systems so un-automated compared to nowadays, particularly looking after 4 piston engines in flight for mixture, ignition, manifold pressure, rpm, all of that. A good flight engineer could save multiples of their salary in preventing engine damage by seeing problems coming. The FE was the last of these positions to survive, well into the jet age until the current generation of aircraft.
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thanks
Stupid question but I guess the reason for the night stops was the difficulty in navigating at night?????????? true?
You could navigate at night then I guess but not well. the sextant must have been a real mess especially "reducing the reading' as I learned in naval Officer Candidate school - odd, my plotted location for the ship was always in kansas or somewhere equally stupid. What killed the sextant? Loran?
The modern US regional jets like i flew on last month - 50 pass. 2 pilots, 1 cabin attendant. lot less labor costs.
Concorde had a flight engineer but on a TV show i saw today, that was listed as one of the 3 cost reasons they stopped flying. other two were general high end business recession, and also future mandatory general flight safety and security upgrades.
re the uv water sterilizer - just cause its sold does not mean it works - they try to sell these things for central air conditioning sysytems too but i have yet to see an independant 3 rd party testing lab prove they work. (the company's test prove they work, of course)
You could navigate at night then I guess but not well. the sextant must have been a real mess especially "reducing the reading' as I learned in naval Officer Candidate school - odd, my plotted location for the ship was always in kansas or somewhere equally stupid. What killed the sextant? Loran?
The modern US regional jets like i flew on last month - 50 pass. 2 pilots, 1 cabin attendant. lot less labor costs.
Concorde had a flight engineer but on a TV show i saw today, that was listed as one of the 3 cost reasons they stopped flying. other two were general high end business recession, and also future mandatory general flight safety and security upgrades.
re the uv water sterilizer - just cause its sold does not mean it works - they try to sell these things for central air conditioning sysytems too but i have yet to see an independant 3 rd party testing lab prove they work. (the company's test prove they work, of course)
Death Cruiser Flight Crew
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No, that wasn't the reason for night stopping. In fact, you could argue that navigation at night was easier because you could use celestial to a greater extent. What did make life more difficult was pressurisation, which brought in the periscopic sextant instead of the astrodome. This meant you had to have a reasonable idea of the whereabouts of the stars that you were going to use before you shoved the sextant up through the airlock. This meant a certain amount of pre-computation and some rapid work when you took the star shots, even in an aircraft doing 210 kts.
Unfortunately, the navigator of a BOAC Hermes got it wrong over the Sahara at night, en route Tripoli - Kano. The aircraft ended up several hundred miles off track, and belly landed in the desert, out of fuel. This accident was the subject of a fairly recent television programme in Britain, and a long string of discussion in this part of PPRuNe.
As recently as the 1970s, 707s and VC10s were being navigated across oceans and deserts by a mixture of celestial, DR, Doppler and Loran. In the 1950s, BOAC decided to dispense with the specialist flight navigator. Thereafter, all new entrant pilots did their aircraft type ratings, but having qualified, immediately went back to ground school to attain their flight nav. licence. (Where they were instructed by some of the displaced flight navigators!) They were then rostered as the navigator, for the first quite few years of employment. What eventually ended the requirement for a qualified flight navigator was the advent of triple INS.
Going back to the nightstop issue, it was probably to avoid a crew being stuck somewhere for up to a week, due to multiple destinations and complex rostering.
Unfortunately, the navigator of a BOAC Hermes got it wrong over the Sahara at night, en route Tripoli - Kano. The aircraft ended up several hundred miles off track, and belly landed in the desert, out of fuel. This accident was the subject of a fairly recent television programme in Britain, and a long string of discussion in this part of PPRuNe.
As recently as the 1970s, 707s and VC10s were being navigated across oceans and deserts by a mixture of celestial, DR, Doppler and Loran. In the 1950s, BOAC decided to dispense with the specialist flight navigator. Thereafter, all new entrant pilots did their aircraft type ratings, but having qualified, immediately went back to ground school to attain their flight nav. licence. (Where they were instructed by some of the displaced flight navigators!) They were then rostered as the navigator, for the first quite few years of employment. What eventually ended the requirement for a qualified flight navigator was the advent of triple INS.
Going back to the nightstop issue, it was probably to avoid a crew being stuck somewhere for up to a week, due to multiple destinations and complex rostering.
Last edited by Georgeablelovehowindia; 19th Oct 2004 at 13:45.
I believe that nightstops were a hangover from the flying boat days, when night landings were considered hazardous at some locations.
Also the crews traditionally stayed with the aircraft, because if you slipped every 12 hours or so, at the frequencies being used in the 1950s it would take a couple of months to get back home again for the BOAC Argonaut crews who were the initial subject of this discussion (OK, it would be a great trip, and much better than merchant shipping crews of the time enjoyed).
The prospect of several sustained days in the noise and vibration of an Argonaut would surely have been a real turn-off for the passengers.
And the pax in those days were just the well-heeled set who paid a substantial premium over going by ship. And they expected to sleep in a bed, if not every night then every other one. And they weren't like me, work in the office in London up to Friday afternoon, evening flight to Australia, expect to start work in the office there 08.00 Monday morning, reverse the following weekend.
Seats in economy may have had more legroom then, and there were a few aircraft with first class seats that converted into bunks, but most seats were not a patch on the sleeper seats of today.
Remember that aircraft were not nearly so expensive in those days too, so annual utilisation figures didn't matter as much !
I wonder, what was the last flight to make nightstops en-route. I seem to remember there was a Northwest until recent years which did an afternoon run from the US to Tokyo, then continued the next morning, same flight number, across Asia. Through pax were put in a hotel overnight by the airline.
Also the crews traditionally stayed with the aircraft, because if you slipped every 12 hours or so, at the frequencies being used in the 1950s it would take a couple of months to get back home again for the BOAC Argonaut crews who were the initial subject of this discussion (OK, it would be a great trip, and much better than merchant shipping crews of the time enjoyed).
The prospect of several sustained days in the noise and vibration of an Argonaut would surely have been a real turn-off for the passengers.
And the pax in those days were just the well-heeled set who paid a substantial premium over going by ship. And they expected to sleep in a bed, if not every night then every other one. And they weren't like me, work in the office in London up to Friday afternoon, evening flight to Australia, expect to start work in the office there 08.00 Monday morning, reverse the following weekend.
Seats in economy may have had more legroom then, and there were a few aircraft with first class seats that converted into bunks, but most seats were not a patch on the sleeper seats of today.
Remember that aircraft were not nearly so expensive in those days too, so annual utilisation figures didn't matter as much !
I wonder, what was the last flight to make nightstops en-route. I seem to remember there was a Northwest until recent years which did an afternoon run from the US to Tokyo, then continued the next morning, same flight number, across Asia. Through pax were put in a hotel overnight by the airline.
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Actually, not all the 1950@s airline pax were "well-heeled!" A lot of them (at least on BOAC and certain British charter airlines) were in the Colonial Service or doing other government-related work in African and Asian colonies. Remember, a lot of the world was still coloured pink on the map in those days! Even after independence, many of these countries still retained a lot of British advisors, especially in areas such as agriculture, forestry and irrigation. Traffic to destinations such as Nairobi, Entebbe, Lagos and Khartoum, to name but a few destinations, was quite respectable.
Slightly off-topic, I've just read a portion of a BOAC UK-USA and Canada timetable for October 1958, which surprised me in many ways: Up to 6 flights daily in each direction between London and New York, 4 of them by DC7C's, plus the long-standing "Monarch" Stratocruiser daily de-luxe service. Only one Britannia flight on certain days of the week. I didn't realise that the Strat's were used on the New York run as late as 1958. I guess the reason was to provide sleeper beds. The schedule doesn't show Shannon or Gander but I would guess the Strat. stopped at both.
Why so few Britannia 312 flights? The first London-New York by Britannia was December 1957, so was the operational fleet only building up slowly due to technical problems?
Also of interest is that Manchester had direct flights to Montreal as well as New York, and Glasgow was linked to Boston, New York, Detroit and Chicago, which is a more comprehensive choice of destinations than BA can offer now!
Slightly off-topic, I've just read a portion of a BOAC UK-USA and Canada timetable for October 1958, which surprised me in many ways: Up to 6 flights daily in each direction between London and New York, 4 of them by DC7C's, plus the long-standing "Monarch" Stratocruiser daily de-luxe service. Only one Britannia flight on certain days of the week. I didn't realise that the Strat's were used on the New York run as late as 1958. I guess the reason was to provide sleeper beds. The schedule doesn't show Shannon or Gander but I would guess the Strat. stopped at both.
Why so few Britannia 312 flights? The first London-New York by Britannia was December 1957, so was the operational fleet only building up slowly due to technical problems?
Also of interest is that Manchester had direct flights to Montreal as well as New York, and Glasgow was linked to Boston, New York, Detroit and Chicago, which is a more comprehensive choice of destinations than BA can offer now!
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I'm looking at the May 1958 copy of the ABC guide (now the OAG)
It shows for BA LON-NYC:
A daily nonstop DC7 at 22:30, arriving 06:45
A daily nonstop Strat at 20:00, arriving at 08:00
A daily 09:30 DC7, calling aither at MAN (4pw) or BOS (3pw)
A daily 21:00 DC7, calling either at PIK/BOS (4pw) or MAN/PIK (3pw)
Twice weekly Britannia 23:00/06:00 continuing to SFO
That last, plus the daily Montreal-Detroit-Chicago (via PIK 3pw) was the only Brit312 operation in the whole schedule.
It shows for BA LON-NYC:
A daily nonstop DC7 at 22:30, arriving 06:45
A daily nonstop Strat at 20:00, arriving at 08:00
A daily 09:30 DC7, calling aither at MAN (4pw) or BOS (3pw)
A daily 21:00 DC7, calling either at PIK/BOS (4pw) or MAN/PIK (3pw)
Twice weekly Britannia 23:00/06:00 continuing to SFO
That last, plus the daily Montreal-Detroit-Chicago (via PIK 3pw) was the only Brit312 operation in the whole schedule.
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do you know what a typical early 50s strat schedule for NY - London was?
-when leaving NY (late in evening?)?
-and where were the stops?
-i thought one was in Iceland - any others?
-how long in elapsed time? and when were the berths used? - i assume an evening flight through Iceland took a while to getto London so thats when people slept/
My only winter memory of London on that winter trip was rain and fog!!!! and a hotel with a small elevator before the next day's trip going to Singapore
-when leaving NY (late in evening?)?
-and where were the stops?
-i thought one was in Iceland - any others?
-how long in elapsed time? and when were the berths used? - i assume an evening flight through Iceland took a while to getto London so thats when people slept/
My only winter memory of London on that winter trip was rain and fog!!!! and a hotel with a small elevator before the next day's trip going to Singapore
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Britannia 312 delivery dates: G-AOVB 10.9.57, VC 15.11.57, VD (oops!) 6.12.57 (W.O. 24.12.58), VE 21.12.57, VF 2.1.58, VG 19.3.58, VH 11.2.58, VI 10.4.58, VJ 13.3.58, VK/VL ?.5.58, VM 10.6.58, VN 4.7.58, VO 4.9.58, VP 31.7.58, VR 3.10.58, VS ?.10.58, and VT 1.1.59.
In contrast, all fifteen of the initial order for Boeing 707-436s were delivered between 27.4.60 and 22.12.60. I imagine that the training section must have been going at it 24/7 to get them into service.
Source: Turbine Engined Airliners Of The World by F G Swanborough, Temple Press 1962.
(Much climbing up into the attic and the blowing off of the dust!)
In contrast, all fifteen of the initial order for Boeing 707-436s were delivered between 27.4.60 and 22.12.60. I imagine that the training section must have been going at it 24/7 to get them into service.
Source: Turbine Engined Airliners Of The World by F G Swanborough, Temple Press 1962.
(Much climbing up into the attic and the blowing off of the dust!)
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A few answers and observations.
The winter 1956 schedule shows the daily Stratocruiser " Monarch" service as departing New York at 1700 and arriving at Heathrow at 1000 the following morning. Although no intermediate stops are shown it is probable that a technical call was allowed for, probably at Gander.
Travel on all the piston types, not just the throaty Argonaut, was very noisy and both the noise and the motion of the aircrafy could often be felt for more than 24 hours after arrival.
The Argonaut outlasted the Constellation probably due to its reliability, which stemmed from a number of factors including the wartime familiarity of air and ground crews with the Merlin. It was also easier to load than the long legged Constellation and in Tourist configuration had a more attractive cabin, three rows in the Constellation being windowless or almost so.
BOACs favoured hotel for delayed passengers in the days when most passengers checked in at Airways Terminal ( still there opposite Victoria Coach Station) was the Eccleston, just across the railway bridge from Buckingham Palace Road on the the left/eastern side of Eccleston Square. The building remains , though now converted to other uses, but the original hotel entrance layout is clear to see.
Each departing flight had its own bus from Airways Terminal with the destination shown proudly on the front,- very status enhancing for the passengers in the Earls Court Road!
The winter 1956 schedule shows the daily Stratocruiser " Monarch" service as departing New York at 1700 and arriving at Heathrow at 1000 the following morning. Although no intermediate stops are shown it is probable that a technical call was allowed for, probably at Gander.
Travel on all the piston types, not just the throaty Argonaut, was very noisy and both the noise and the motion of the aircrafy could often be felt for more than 24 hours after arrival.
The Argonaut outlasted the Constellation probably due to its reliability, which stemmed from a number of factors including the wartime familiarity of air and ground crews with the Merlin. It was also easier to load than the long legged Constellation and in Tourist configuration had a more attractive cabin, three rows in the Constellation being windowless or almost so.
BOACs favoured hotel for delayed passengers in the days when most passengers checked in at Airways Terminal ( still there opposite Victoria Coach Station) was the Eccleston, just across the railway bridge from Buckingham Palace Road on the the left/eastern side of Eccleston Square. The building remains , though now converted to other uses, but the original hotel entrance layout is clear to see.
Each departing flight had its own bus from Airways Terminal with the destination shown proudly on the front,- very status enhancing for the passengers in the Earls Court Road!
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In the early fifties, the era that you started this topic in, they were specialist radio officers or navigating officers, having had those functions in the wartime RAF. The radio officer disappeared with the Argonaut - the Britannia was crewed by two pilots, a specialist flight engineer and a navigator. By that stage, BOAC had decided that all pilots had to hold flight nav. licences as well and the specialist navigators were gradually replaced by them.
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Found the route map - what date?
My mom went through some old stuff- found a BOAC Route Map-I can not find a date on it - pale blue cover- title is Britain to Australia and N. Zealand- has about 4 fold out long pages/maps with an ad in the front for E Hind Ltd- a metal dealer (strange advertiser in my opinion).
Map printed by International Aeradio limited .
back cover says N. Zealand, Australia to Britain.
Marked BOAC with Quantas Empire and Tasman Empire Airways Ltd.
Is there a date hidden on it anywhere?
Map printed by International Aeradio limited .
back cover says N. Zealand, Australia to Britain.
Marked BOAC with Quantas Empire and Tasman Empire Airways Ltd.
Is there a date hidden on it anywhere?
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WHBM-----I think you will find the problem with the Strats initially was not to do with the P&W 4360 engine alone but more to do to with the hollow steel Curtis prop blades which I believe were electrically controlled rather than by Hyds . This type of prop got such a bad reputation that most Strats [if not all ] were retro fitted with hyd controlled props with solid blades.
The Argonaut actually had cross over exhaust so all exhaust outlets were on the outer side of the engine so as to reduce cabin noise, but like all piston powered aircraft quietness was a relative term
The reason for the Argonaut was that the UK after WW2 had no $$$ and so BOAC had to by from a Stirling area, ie Canada or the UK and so any American aircraft had to be sold on for $$ as soon as a British aircraft became available [ sale of initial Connies ] even if the Brit aircraft failed to live up to expectations
edward1 ----Regarding the Concorde you have it slightly wrong in that they wanted to reduce the crew to a two man crew that being a pilot and a F/E amuch better combination I am sure you would agree
The Argonaut actually had cross over exhaust so all exhaust outlets were on the outer side of the engine so as to reduce cabin noise, but like all piston powered aircraft quietness was a relative term
The reason for the Argonaut was that the UK after WW2 had no $$$ and so BOAC had to by from a Stirling area, ie Canada or the UK and so any American aircraft had to be sold on for $$ as soon as a British aircraft became available [ sale of initial Connies ] even if the Brit aircraft failed to live up to expectations
edward1 ----Regarding the Concorde you have it slightly wrong in that they wanted to reduce the crew to a two man crew that being a pilot and a F/E amuch better combination I am sure you would agree
Ah!..memories. My first plane trip was Sydney-Singapore in 1952.
B.O.A.C. Connie, from memory 38 First Class seats only, a night departure out of Sydney for Darwin, the hostess made up a "bed" on the floor behind the last row of seats using blankets,where my brother and I slept.
Early morning arrival in Darwin, everyone deplaned into the terminal for a proper sit-down breakfast. Next leg to Djakarta with a sight seeing orbit around an active volcano in Eastern Java!! Wish I could do that today in my 777. Total flight time was between 16-17 hours SYD-SIN.
Also recall the smoke coming from a crashed B.O.A.C. Connie that undershot the runway in Singapore, long flight ,extended tour of duty due delays,crew fatigue . Aircraft impacted the seawall and was destroyed.Does anyone have further info on this accident?
B.O.A.C. Connie, from memory 38 First Class seats only, a night departure out of Sydney for Darwin, the hostess made up a "bed" on the floor behind the last row of seats using blankets,where my brother and I slept.
Early morning arrival in Darwin, everyone deplaned into the terminal for a proper sit-down breakfast. Next leg to Djakarta with a sight seeing orbit around an active volcano in Eastern Java!! Wish I could do that today in my 777. Total flight time was between 16-17 hours SYD-SIN.
Also recall the smoke coming from a crashed B.O.A.C. Connie that undershot the runway in Singapore, long flight ,extended tour of duty due delays,crew fatigue . Aircraft impacted the seawall and was destroyed.Does anyone have further info on this accident?
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zlin77,
The following website might be of help on that Connie
http://aviation-safety.net
press database and then 1954
It appears to have happened on 13 March 1954 and was a
BOAC Constellation 749A G-ALAM
edwardh1---- I have seen a DC-7 now converted to a Water bomber in the USA where all the interior has been removed except for the 1/2 round cocktail table and settee at the rear of the cabin. Blue and cream two tone, I seem to remember, very similar to American car interiors of the 1950s
The following website might be of help on that Connie
http://aviation-safety.net
press database and then 1954
It appears to have happened on 13 March 1954 and was a
BOAC Constellation 749A G-ALAM
edwardh1---- I have seen a DC-7 now converted to a Water bomber in the USA where all the interior has been removed except for the 1/2 round cocktail table and settee at the rear of the cabin. Blue and cream two tone, I seem to remember, very similar to American car interiors of the 1950s