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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0953.PDF
478 FLIGHT, 3 April 1959 AIR COMMERCE . . . yi:|^V^ -::~? ANOTHER ALTIMETER MISREAD THE report of the investigation into the loss of B.E.A.'s Viscount802, G-AORC, which crashed near Prestwick on April 28, 1958, was published last week. The conclusion is that the accidentwas caused by the commander (Capt. W. H. Hankin, D.F.C.) misreading the altitude by 10,000ft. At 4,500ft he read 14,50C<it,and he "perpetuated the error of 10,000ft until the aircraft struck the ground some five minutes later." There was, in addition,"a lack of co-operation between the two pilots [the co-pilot was F/O. B. Fleming] and a lack of alertness on the part of theco-pilot." Most people know that since this accident two othershave caused the M.T.C.A. to order the replacement of existing altimeter presentations (Flight, March 6). It is therefore par-ticularly interesting to study the final paragraph of the Prestwick inquiry report headed "Opinion": "Whilst a somewhat ambiguouspresentation of height on the pressure altimeter may have initiated this misreading, a lack of co-operation between the captain andfirst officer and a lack of alertness on the part of the first officer were the main contributory factors." This suggests, despite the conclusions of the report, thatthe "somewhat ambiguous presentation" must in fact have been the primary cause. There is no doubt that the report places majorresponsibility for the accident on the captain; and it remains to be seen whether—in view of the subsequent altimeter changesordered—there will be a repetition of the kind of story reviewed on page 477. Sir Lionel Heald, M.P. for Chertsey, last week asked theMinister of Civil Aviation if he was aware that the chief inspector "ignored" successive requests by the pilot, Capt. W. H. Hankin,to be fully heard and to call and cross-examine witnesses, and that Capt. Hankin had asked for a public inquiry, "having regard tocertain important considerations of public safety and confidence arising from the use of a type of altimeter which is now beingmodified." The Minister's reply was non-committal. Among the observations made in the report are the following: — "Although he was not manually flying the aircraft because the auto- pilot was engaged, Capt. Hankin was controlling the descent and monitoring his instruments. On top of this he was doing all the R/T (the exchanges on which occupied about 4i minutes of the 12 minutes between the start of the descent and Prestwick Beacon), writing down the weather reports, studying the approach and overshoot procedures, briefing the first officer on a possible overshoot, attending to descent and initial approach drills and checking the altimeters. There seems litde doubt that in so doing he overloaded himself to an extent that made possible the mental loss of the descent sequence." Capt. Hankin, 42, had completed 10,135 hr at the time of theaccident, 9,000 of these being in command. His Viscount 800 hours were 766. F/O. Fleming, 39, had completed 5,260 hr, ofwhich 544 were on Viscount 800s. There were no passengers on board the aircraft, which was ona charter, and there were no fatal injuries among the five crew- members. Footnote: B.E.A. last week announced that they have adopted a flash-ing light system which will warn pilots when their height is less than 10,000ft. SIR ALFRED LE MAITRE IT is with great regret that Flight records the death, on Sunday,March 22, of Sir Alfred Le Maitre, K.B.E., C.B.E., M.C., at the age of 62. From 1948 until his retirement in 1957 he wasController of Ground Services at the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. He was the first to hold this post, which wasestablished by the merger in 1948 of the posts of Controller of Technical and Operational Services and Controller of Aerodromes.Sir Alfred played a leading part in the post-war development of all London's airports; one of the best histories of the developmentof London Airport was a paper he read before the Royal Society of Arts on March 27, 1957. BREVITIES Overseas Aviation have purchased from B.O.A.C. a third Canadair DC-4M Argonaut, G-ALHK. * * * American Airlines are offering five DC-6As at $950,000 each, to be leased back from the purchaser at $22,000 each per month. * * * A Douglas DC-8 will be demonstrated at Schiphol on June 21 and 22, after being exhibited at the Paris Show. It will subse- quently be demonstrated in Copenhagen. * * * Braniff Airways are reported to be studying the possibility of converting some of their Convair fleet to turboprop power. Both the Allison 501 and the Napier Eland are being examined. Braniff has 25 Convair 340s and six Convair 440s. * * * The dispute between S.A.S. and the Scandinavian Pilots' Asso-ciation ended on March 24. There had been a lock-out of 600 Swedish crew-members—causing the cancellation of all S.A.S.intercontinental flights—at midnight on February 28, following rejection by the company of a claim for higher pay for flyingDC-8s and Caravelles. Flights were restricted to limited European services manned by Danish and Norwegian crews who had pre-viously reached agreement. B.E.A.'s Comet 4Bs and Vanguards are to be painted in the boldest colour scheme yet adopted by a British airline. The wings will be bright red, both top and bottom, and the fuselage flash below the white decking will be black. B.E.A. squares will be red. A comment on the styling of B.E.A.'s aircraft, with a plea for brighter colour schemes, . appeared on page 633 of "Flight" for October 17, 1958 Yesterday, April 2, the Handley Page Dart Herald was due tomake a demonstration flight from Gatwick to Le Touquet, prior to its sales tour of India. * * * The second prototype Friendship was damaged in Ethiopiarecently after a belly landing. It is understood that the wheels were retracted too soon during take-off. The aircraft had beenmaking demonstrations in Khartoum, Addis Ababa and elsewhere. .* * * • The first non-stop flight from London to New York by aB.O.A.C. Comet 4 was made on Tuesday, 24 March, when G-APDH, commanded by R. C. Alabaster, made the flight in7 hr 45 min from take-off to touch-down (8 hr 2 min chock to chock). * * * Protesting against the increased U.K. airport charges, a delega-tion from the Foreign Airlines Association saw the Controller of Ground Services, Mr. E. A. Armstrong, at the M.T.C.A. onMarch 20. The delegation was led by Mr. W. H. Whelan of Aer Lingus. No statement was issued.* * * Rolls-Royce, who have developed Comet 4 and 707-420 sound-suppressor nozzles, have entered into a patent licence agreement with Power Jets (Research & Development) Ltd. The patentscover inventions which resulted from original work on sound suppression done at the College of Aeronautics (Cranfield) by theinventors, Professor A. D. Young and Messrs. G. M. Lilley and R. Westley. * * * A newspaper report last week to the effect that Pan Americanwill allocate one 707 to transatlantic cargo was subsequently described by a London spokesman for the airline as "completelywithout foundation." The report suggested that Pan American, having obtained I.A.T.A. approval for bulk consignment cargo-rates, would devote one jet entirely to this work, thus dominating the market. * * * Mme. de Gaulle named the first Air France Caravelle Lorraineat Orly on March 24. Air France will receive the first four of their 24 Caravelles before mid-April, followed by five more duringthe year. The 1960 schedule calls for one delivery in each of the months of February, March and April; two in May; one in June;two in July; one in September; two in October; two in November; and two in December. Passenger services will be inauguratedfrom Paris to Athens and Istanbul via Rome (four times a week) and via Milan (three times) on May 12. The prototype 02Caravelle, incidentally, is on a two-month lease to S.A.S. in Stockholm for crew-training.
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