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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0762.PDF
770 FLIGHT, 3 June 196C AIR COMMERCE Imported turboprops: Of the three types of turbo- prop engine today earn- ing money for US airlines, two are British — the Napier t Eland and the Rolls-Royce Dart, here seen together at Phila- delphia. The Eland (DM. propeller) powers Allegheny's Convair 540s "Flight" photograph COMET 4 ACCIDENT REPORT A SUMMARY of the report of the Indian Government's inves-tigation of the accident to a BOAC Comet 4 G-APDA on June 8, 1959, at Calcutta has been published by the Civil AviationDepartment in New Delhi. It appears in the department's Monthly News Letter (No. 12). The accident is attributed to piloterror. As already reported, Comet 4 flight manual approach speed was increased by 5kt after the accident. This is the summary: — "The report of the Director of Aeronautical Inspection, Civil AviationDepartment, on the accident to British Overseas Airways Corporation Comet aircraft G-APDA at Calcutta (Dum Dum) Airport, on June 8,1959, has been accepted by Government. "The aircraft, which was operating the Tokyo - London passengerservice No SB-931 of BOAC, was attempting to land at Calcutta Airport with the aid of the Instrument Landing System. The earlier stages of the approach to Runway 19L proceeded without incident. Howeverturbulence was encountered necessitating increased power to stabilize the fluctuating air speed at the recommended figure. The increasedpower, however, was applied too late with the result that sudden sinking of the aircraft and an impact with trees could not be avoided. "Thereafter, partial loss of lateral control was experienced as con-siderable damage had been caused to the flaps. Missed approach pro- cedure was then successfully carried out. The next approach was madton to Runway 01R. The aircraft was then being flown by visua: reference. During this approach the aircraft again impacted the tree:.as due allowance was nor made for the higher stalling speed of the damaged aircraft. Missed approach procedure was again initiated anathe aircraft responded well. Further damage had, however, been sus- tained. A circuit was executed and the landing during the third attemptwas successful, but the damaged aircraft failed to pull up within the available length of the wet runway because of the higher speed at whichthe approach had to be justifiably made. "No injury was sustained by the 44 passengers and nine members ofthe crew on board. The aircraft was, however, substantially damaged. "The accident is attributed to an error of judgment on the partof flying crew in not applying increased power when approaching to land under turbulent conditions. The subsequent power increase wasapplied too late to prevent the aircraft, which was being flown at a speed below the speed recommended for turbulent conditions, fromsinking and striking trees." TURNHOUSE FOR EDINBURGH ? SERIOUS consideration is being given to a proposal for Edin-burgh corporation to take over Turnhouse Airport, now run bv the Air Ministry. If this were done—and it is reported thatwithin six months the Minister of Aviation will ask the corporation to run the airport—Turnhouse would become Scotland's firstmunicipally-owned airport. Losses on the Scottish airports last year were about £500,000.While Edinburgh's attitude to taking over the airport is not clear, the views of Michael Clark Hutchison, an Edinburgh MP, andSir Patrick Dollan, chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council for Civil Aviation, seem to be opposed. Mr Hutchison, who 18months ago approached the Ministry with a suggestion that Edinburgh corporation might take over the airport, said: "I thinkit would be operated better by the corporation. The ones I know of in England which are municipally-owned seemed to work quitewell." Sir Patrick Dollan opposes the plan on the grounds that airports should be in the control of the State as part of the nationaldefence and for emergency services. Edinburgh handled nearly 157,000 passengers last year, 35 percent more than in 1958. No trading account is published. THE POKER GAME IF our interpretation of recent events is correct, the world'stwo major civil air powers, the United States and GreatBritain, are on cool terms with each other at the moment. Six solid weeks of negotiation to resolve differences over theso-called Bermuda Agreement have been adjourned. A brief Ministry statement said tersely: "It was not possible to reachagreement"—not even conceding, as diplomatic protocol pre- scribes in the event of disagreement, that there had been "a fulland frank exchange of views." There has certainly been no full and frank exchange of trafficrights. The six-week poker game (a knowledge of poker is a desirable attribute of your successful traffic-rights negotiator)has not actually ended with a grand slam of the Ministry's door, which apparently remains open. And it would perhaps be goingtoo far to say that each side regards the other as a four-flusher. But all the cards have been put on the table, and each side is inno doubt of the other's hand. Neither country has budged from the position in which it wasentrenched when the first round of negotiations began at Barbados on February 24—even though as a gesture of goodwill the Britishallowed PanAm to resume the New York - Jamaica jet service on which, by combining two routes, it jumped the gun last December.Even the limited agreement on the Caribbean area, announced when the Barbados talks were adjourned on March 17, now seemsin jeopardy. It will be recalled that, over a year ago, the UK "deeplydeplored" (BOAC's words) the CAB's procedural filibustering over BOAC's inclusion of Tokyo on its San Francisco - HongKong route. This is old history; BOAC were grudgingly granted a right to which, by gentlemen's agreement, they had been entitledsince 1957. It was actually this squabble which led to the recent attempt to settle, once and for all and on a basis of parity, theroute-requirements of each country. Britain was, it seems, prepared to give Northwest liberal rightsin the bustling Crown Colony of Hong Kong, one of the Far East's richest traffic points. This was a major concession, allowinga second US carrier (the existing one being PanAm) to dilute BOAC's Far East - US business. It seemed reasonable to askfor a major reciprocal concession from the Americans. Instead, the UK asked only that the US should recognize BOACs rightsto the San Francisco - Sydney route, to give BOAC a second round-the-world service via the South Pacific. That BOAC have these rights is in no doubt as far as the UKand Australia are concerned. Though Australia bought the UK and NZ shares in BCPA (respectively 30 and 20 per cent) in March1954, and Qantas took over BCPA's South Pacific services, the UK has never ceded its rights—clearly written down as Route 8in the schedule to the Bermuda Agreement—to a San Francisco - Australia service. But the Americans, it appears, laid down conditions which, byrestricting BOAC to a regional service only, would have made a South Pacific route commercially useless. The US argumentappears to have been that the rights were tied to BCPA. The US were not prepared to concede rights to BOAC as well as toBCPA, even though the British were prepared to concede this principle of "double designation" in respect of the Hong Kongroute. All this came up during the second round of talks in Washington(April 28-May 19). The rebuff over the South Pacific, and par- ticularly the commercial restrictions that the CAB tried to imposeon BOAC, cannot have increased the reserves of goodwill on the British side. Nevertheless, when the Americans turned to anotherpart of the world and raised once again the four-year-old issue of TWA's "beyond rights" through the London gateway intoEurope, the UK offered them a London - Cairo route. This was rejected: the Americans wanted nothing less than unlimited TWAaccess to London - Rome, a concession that would seriously under- mine BEA's traffic as well as Britain's close relations with theItalians. ".•.":•*.-•..--• (Continued overleaf)
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