![]() G-ALYV, the aircraft involved in the accident | |
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 2 May 1953 |
Summary | Crashed following structural failure in severe turbulence |
Site | Jagalgori, near Calcutta, India 22°47′19″N88°04′55″E / 22.788577°N 88.082081°E |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | de Havilland DH.106 Comet |
Operator | BOAC |
Registration | G-ALYV |
Flight origin | Kallang Airport, Singapore |
1st stopover | Dum Dum Airport, Calcutta, India |
2nd stopover | Safdarjung Airport, India |
Destination | London, England |
Occupants | 43 |
Passengers | 37 |
Crew | 6 |
Fatalities | 43 |
Survivors | 0 |
On 2 May 1953, BOAC Flight 783, a de Havilland Comet jetliner registered G-ALYV and operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation, broke up mid-air and crashed after encountering a severe squall, shortly after taking off from Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. All 43 passengers and crew on board were killed. [1]
The crash was followed in less than a year by two more fatal accidents involving structural failure of Comet aircraft: BOAC Flight 781 and South African Airways Flight 201, after which the entire fleet was grounded until extensive redesign of the type was carried out, leading to the development of the Comet 2 version. [2]
Flight 783 had originated in Singapore and was a service to London. After a scheduled stopover at Calcutta's Dum Dum Airport (now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport), the aircraft departed on 2 May at 16:29 local time (10:59 GMT) on its next segment to Delhi. [3]
Six minutes after takeoff, while the jet was climbing to 7,500 ft (2,300 m), radio contact with air traffic control was lost. At around the same time, witnesses on the ground near the village of Jagalgori, around 25 miles (40 km) north-west of Calcutta, observed the aircraft coming down in flames. Severe rain and thunderstorms were present in the area.[ citation needed ]
The wreckage of G-ALYV was later found strewn along a 5-mile (8 km) track, with the main parts still on fire. There were no survivors. [3]
The 43 people on board were 6 crew members and 37 passengers of British, American, Australian, Burmese and Filipino nationalities. [3] Among the victims were Australian politician Trevor Oldham and his wife. [4]
The subsequent investigation found that, after encountering a squall, the aircraft "suffered structural failure in the air which caused fire." The probable cause of the failure was reported as "overstressing which resulted from either: severe gusts encountered in the thundersquall, or overcontrolling or loss of control by the pilot when flying through the thunderstorm." [3] [5]
The investigators also recommended "to consider if any modification to the structure of the Comet is necessary." [3]
Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers were typically businessmen or colonial administrators, and most flights carried about 20 passengers or fewer. Accidents were frequent: in the first six years, 32 people died in seven incidents. Imperial Airways never achieved the levels of technological innovation of its competitors and was merged into the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939. BOAC in turn merged with the British European Airways (BEA) in 1974 to form British Airways.
The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It features an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wing roots, a pressurised cabin, and large windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and was commercially promising at its debut in 1952.
British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1934:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1952:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1953:
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