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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0160.PDF
160 FLIGHT, 29 January i960 Lined up at V/isley for an early morning start are four of BEA's Vanguards, one still its Vickers' colours. Fiyein Vanguards are now flying and the first for TCA will be airborne next month. Seven others are in final assembly AIR COMMERCE . . . quarter of last year it produced in Allegheny service an availableton mile cost of 12.59c as compared with the local service airline average for all types of aircraft of 21.14c. Operating cost in the44-seat configuration was 1.64c per available seat mile and this is claimed to compare with an average of 2.05c for other types ofaircraft in US local service. A daily utilization of over six hours was achieved compared with 5Jhr for piston-engined Convairs.The 540s which Allegheny will put into service will be_ equipped with 52 seats and this should reduce the cost per available seatmile to 1.39c. THREE BLACK WEEKS FOUR serious accidents to scheduled airliners in the first threeweeks of 1960, causing the loss of 147 passenger lives, prompt the academic question: Will the remainder of 1960, statisticallyspeaking, be relatively safe for air travellers? In other words, has 1960 already had its statistical quota of passenger fatalities? The best annual world accident rate in ICAO's records,measured in fatalities per 100m scheduled passenger miles (domestic and international), was 0.99 in 1957. Assuming thatworld scheduled passenger-miles increase by 10 per cent in 1960 compared with 1959 it appears that there would have to be afurther 496 statistical fatalities this year for the 1960 accident rate to be as good as the best on record. If traffic goes up by 15 percent, there would have to be a further 525 statistical fatalities to achieve the same best-ever figure of 0.99. The "acceptable" yardstick for air transport's fatality rate isusually put at 1.0. In America last year the rate (international services included) rose to 0.7 from 0.4 in 1958. The UK figure(provisional) in 1959 was about 0.95, or zero if inclusive tours are not counted as scheduled services. This year's first fatal accident, recorded previously, was to aNational DC-6B on January 6. Twelve days later, on the night of January 18, Capital Airlines Viscount N-7462 crashed andburnt out in a marshy ravine near Holdcroft, Va; there were no survivors among the 46 passengers and four crew. The Viscountwas on its way from Washington to Norfolk, Va, having previously flown from Chicago to Washington. Many airports in easternVirginia were closed by fog, but Norfolk was still open, with a 600ft ceiling and five-mile visibility. The Viscount was flying•IFR and had left Washington at 2145hr. When about 50 miles from Norfolk the pilot had made a routine check with Norfolktower but at 2220hr, or ten minutes before ETA Norfolk, the Viscount was heard circling several times at a low altitude nearHoldcroft, after which it crashed into the ravine. On the night of January 19 SAS Caravelle OY-KRB OrtnViking crashed just before landing at Ankara with the loss of all 35 passengers and seven crew members. This was the first fatalaccident involving the Caravelle and it breaks a period of 11^ years during which SAS has enjoyed an unblemished safety record.The airline's president is reported as having suggested that the Caravelle might have been flying too low and hit a hill. OrmViking had left Copenhagen for Cairo and called at Dusseldorf, Vienna and Istanbul, where the crew changed. Reports indicatethat the Caravelle, flying at about 2,000ft in an overcast, rainy sky, suddenly lost height on the approach and crashed into a hill. On January 21 Avianca Super Constellation HK-177 wasdestroyed in a landing accident at Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 37 people lost their lives; four passengers and five crew memberssurvived. According to eye-witnesses, the Super Constellation bounced twice on the runway, then one engine caught fire. Theaircraft spun round twice, skidded some distance and finished up in a swamp, splitting down the centre as explosions occurred. Pieces of wreckage were found up to 300yd away. The SuperConstellation was on its way from New York to Bogota and had made an unscheduled stop at Miami for an engine fault to berectified; later it had to return there for further attention. It is said that 1960 has so far cost the London insurance marketmore than £4m for hulls alone, with a further liability—as yet unassessed—for passenger claims. A London insurance firm'sspokesman is reported to have said: "The London market thrives I on adversity, for it advertises London's ability to pay up." i THE GREAT SAHARA BLANKET AN area of prohibited airspace three times the size of France is• to shroud the Sahara region in which the French atomic bomb is to be exploded. It was first to come into force at 0545 GMT onJanuary 22, but before the great Sahara blanket was due to close off airspace over a substantial part of the desert around thepermanently prohibited area that surrounds the town of Reggane, the notice was withdrawn. Those who had been following statements by the FrenchMinistry of Defence on the subject of the Sahara atomic test area were not unduly surprised by this apparently sudden withdrawal;it was announced earlier in January that the areas around Reggane would be subject in the coming months to "exercises" involvingflight restrictions, and from this it was surmised that distinction might not be made between exercises and the blocking-off thatis to be put into effect when the actual explosion is imminent. Around Reggane itself flying was permanently prohibited to allaircraft except those of French nationality from December 31, and the latter are confined to a narrow corridor that passes throughthe edge of the permanently prohibited Zone 42. Surrounding the latter are two areas in which movements are prohibited overstipulated periods; a Blue area extending from ground level to 3,000 metres and a much larger Green area extending from 3,000metres amsl upwards to an unlimited height. A Notam governing this restricted airspace warns that at least 12 hours' notice will begiven before "H hour," the time at which prohibition in these regions becomes effective. Automatic closure for six hours willfollow in the Blue area and for 12 hours for the Green, and no air Before delivery to Skyways of four ex- BOAC Constellations the corporation is modifying three of them to include this large freight door with inset passenger entrance. Note the reinforcing stroke along the lower sill
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