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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1383.PDF
LIGHT, 21 September 1961 487 kely-looking lads seen here being introduced to their living quarters by /M E. C. Bates, principal of the College of Air Training, Hamble, are ,>e first seven of BEA's cadet pilots who have just begun their training ARAVELLE TRAGEDY A CARAVELLE belonging to Air France crashed seven\ miles south-west of Rabat on September 12, killing all 72 assengers and six crew on board. According to the control: vwer at Sale Airport, Rabat, the weather was foggy and flying jnditions poor as the Caravelle came in to land. It was in: ndio contact with the tower at the time of the accident. The i aravelle was on a flight from Paris to Casablanca. Except fori he tail assembly, which remained almost intact, and a 12ft sec- tion of the fuselage, the aircraft was completely wrecked. A later report stated that the Caravelle was flying low, overihick fog, towards Rabat Airport with undercarriage down •.'hen its wheels hit the summit of a hill. Marks on the ground:,nd a trail of debris showed the airliner had ploughed a furrow tor about 300yd before plunging into a deep ravine. This was the third major airliner accident this month, and itbrought the total number of airline accidents in 1961 involving passenger and crew fatalities to 28, and the total killed to 912. LUTON LOOKS AHEAD A CONFERENCE was held at Luton Airport on September 8f\ by the Luton, Dunstable and District Chamber of Com- merce in conjunction with Luton council's airport committee.The meeting was convened to draw attention to the facilities offered by Luton Airport, and was formally opened by DrCharles Hill. MP for Luton. Mr H. T. Rushton, the airport manager, reviewed the alreadyexcellent facilities at Luton and outlined a million-pound five- year development programme (see the illustration below) onwhich work has already started, and which will be completed if sufficient use is made of the airport. The concrete runway is5.532ft, has a bearing strength of LCN 45, and land will be purchased at the eastern end of the runway to enable an exten-sion of 1,250ft to be made. A full visual glide-path indicator (v.g.p.i.) system is installed, as well as high-intensity runway,threshold and approach lighting. Other navigational aids avail- able are a Marconi AD 200 DF and Decca 424 radar. Other speakers were Mr P. W. Brooks, BEA's fleet planningmanager; Mr H. C. L. John, KLM's freight sales development officer: and Mr G. H. Threlfall, managing director, Autair(Luton) Ltd. All three reviewed the present position in their particular fields, and estimated future potential growth atLuton. Mr H. J. Colman of Hawthorn Baker Ltd, a local busi- ness firm, recounted the facilities that exporters would wish tosee when using the airport. Mr Brooks and Mr Threlfall put forward their ideas; the essence of these was that Luton shouldconcentrate on developing charter and executive flying to form a basis on which scheduled services could be developed. DerbyAirways have laid some of the foundations and operate a few scheduled services from Luton, and Autair are building up agrowing charter business. Part of Luton's success to date has been due to large resident \ \ ^ — TO LUTON AND Ml. MOTORWAY .ONDON-BIRMINGHAM aircraft manufacturers—for example, Hunting Aircraft Ltd,Napier, English Electric—who provide a steady income. Luton Airport is 500ft a.m.s.l. and because of its altitude is not greatlyaffected by fog. being therefore a useful diversion airfield for the Midlands and London. Mr Rushton said he expected KLMto make an announcement shortly nominating Luton as their diversion airport for London. As to the question whetherLuton will become London's third airport, this appears to be too early to determine. Mr Brooks said : "It will be some yearsbefore there is traffic saturation at Heathrow and Gatwick." Luton enjoys excellent communications with London andthe Midlands, due to the proximity of the Ml motorway (30 miles to London), and frequent railway services to London,Birmingham and the Midlands. With Luton's central position and accessibility to major population areas, it is ideally sitedfor serving an area north-west of London, whose accessibility to other airports is limited by time and distance. £6,000 FOR ALL AIR PASSENGERS TT was on June 22 last that the Royal Assent to the Carriageby Air Act, 1961, was signified in the House of Lords, thus enabling the United Kingdom to ratify the "Hague Protocol"of 1^55 and thus in due course "amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriageby Air signed at Warsaw on October 12, 1929." A minimum of thirty skilfully-managed ratifications is neces-sary before the Hague Protocol can come into force. Ratifica- tion by the UK will bring the present number of ratificationsto around 20; hence it is clear that some time will elapse before English lawyers and air transport operators need becomefamiliar with the details of this latest Act. Although the Protocol effects 17 main alterations to theWarsaw Convention, there are perhaps four changes of major significance: (1) Raising the normal limit of liability of the carrier from125,000 Gold Francs (roughly £3,000)* to 250,000 Gold Francs in the case of death, injury or delay of a passenger.(2) Clarifying the definition of the carrier's "wilful misconduct" —which, if proved to have been the cause of the damagessuffered, will remove from the carrier the protection of the normal limits of liability contained in the Convention. Inthese circumstances damages are only limited by the general law relating to the assessment and remoteness of damages. (3) An extension of the benefits of the Conventional limits ofliability to servants or agents of the carrier acting within the scope of their empleyment. (4) A uniform simplification of the minimum vital character-istics of passenger, baggage and cargo documentation. If a relevant document is not issued, or if the issued documentfails to contain a compulsory statement relating to the applicability of the Convention—then in either of these cir-cumstances, the carrier will again be unable to invoke the protection of the normal limits of liability. The Carriage by Air Act. 1961, also contains provisions (Sec-tion 10) which would enable the amended Convention to be * Which may be compared with approximately £1,000 in 1929. The diagram shows the five-year development plan for Luton Airport (see text). Planned extensions to the concrete east-west runway will increase the total length by 1,200ft to 6,732ft
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