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Aviation History
1966
1966 - 0293.PDF
174 FLIGHT International, 3 February •• 1966 The first of Air Canada's 18 DC-9s (six Series IOs and 12 of the stretched Series 30) is marshalled into position at Montreal International. Services with the DC-9 are to be started by Air Canada in April AIR TRANSPORT... THE AIR-INDIA DISASTER AS reported briefly in last week's issue (page 131) an Air-India Boeing 707-437, registration VT-DMN, hit Rocher de la Tour- nette, a 15,330ft peak of Mont Blanc (15,782ft) at 0707hr GMT on January 24 while descending on an approach to Geneva. A minute before the trace of the aircraft disappeared from Geneva radar screens the pilot, Capt J. T. d'Souza reported his height as 18,600ft. The 707, en route from Bombay to New York via Beirut, Geneva and London, was reported to have chosen to make a procedural let-down rather than one under radar control. Mont Blanc itself is a reporting point where final let-downs to the Geneva approach pattern are initiated. Arrival over the Mont Blanc reporting point, however, would be indicated to the crew only by a cross bearing from Lyon VOR some 82 n.m. distant in an area where ground aids are notoriously unreliable, even at medium ranges, because of the terrain. In view of the strong headwinds which would be delaying the 707 and the weakness of the bearing information from Lyon the captain may have thought he was well past Mont Blanc and begun the descent Mont Blanc is also the point where Italian radar hands over control of aircraft to Geneva radar, but, once again, terrain problems often cause aircraft traces to be lost from radar screens for short periods in this area. The fatalities totalled 117 (106 passengers and 11 crew) in the crash, which is the first accident to a scheduled service of Air-India. By a remarkable coincidence the crash occurred at almost the same place as that of an Air-India Constellation on a charter flight in November 1950 in which 48 passengers and crew were killed. One of India's leading atomic scientists, Dr H. J. Bhabha, was among the passengers killed. Air-India employees, apart from the crew, who lost their lives included Mr G. Bertoli, the carrier's regional director for Europe; Mr G. V. Sivaswami, superintendent, technical operations; and two Americans and one French girl who were on the USA staff. Temperatures of minus 11°F were reported by rescuers who reached the crash site in helicopters and recovery of the wreck- age and bodies is expected to take several months. CPA BUYS DC-8-63s A SECOND order for the capacity-and-range-stretched DC-8-63 has been placed. As recorded briefly in last week's issue (page 131) Canadian Pacific Airlines has ordered three for delivery in June, July and September next year at a cost of about $11 mil- lion (£4 million) each. The first carrier to buy the "Super 63" was KLM, which has ordered two. Canadian Pacific says that the 63s will be used initially on heavy traffic routes, such as the transcontinental, Tokyo/Hong Kong and winter-season Honolulu services. They will be laid out for 205 passengers—185 economy and 20 first class. Accident in Haiti Twenty-eight people were reported killed when an aircraft belonging to the Haitian airline Cohata crashed shortly after take-off from Cayes, 100 miles south- west of the capital, Port au Prince, on January 22. Wien Air Alaska The name of Wien Alaska Airlines, which started operations in 1924, has, reports Aviation Daily, been changed to Wien Air Alaska to "prevent confusion" and to "follow the present trend" in carrier names. 737s for Piedmont An order for six Boeing 737-lOOs, with an option on six more, has been placed by Piedmont Airlines, the US local-service carrier. Deliveries are to start in March 1968, at one a month, with service introduction in April. Bristol Siddeley Engines will take over the lease of the Birch- grove, Cardiff, factory of the British Aircraft Corporation Guided Weapons Division. About half of the BAC employees will be taken on by Bristol Siddeley when the factory changes hands next year. An-24s for Norway The Oslo-based charter carrier, Polaris Air Transport, is reported by Interavia to be considering the purchase of one or more 54-passenger An-24 twin-turboprops. Two directors of Polaris have recently been in Moscow for negotiations. The carrier now has two DC-3s. Eastern Applies for Pacific Rights Following the application from American Airlines (see Flight for January 20, page 91), Eastern Airlines has applied to the CAB for authority to serve major centres in the Pacific and south-east asia, via Hawaii, from Seattle. Last year Eastern applied for south Pacific rights via Mexico City. BOAC Sells More Comets Two Comet 4s have been bought by the Ecuador airline AREA, Aerovias Ecuatorianas, under a lease-purchase contract for delivery in April and July. BOAC has now disposed of ten of its 18 Comets, including five to Malaysian, one to East African and two to Mexicana—which is to do Comet maintenance for AREA; The price being paid by AREA for the Comets is about £1 million, in US dollars. Loan for Aerolineas 707s Doubts about the firmness of the proposal of Aerolineas Argentinas to buy Boeing 707-320Bs were dispelled last month when the Export-Import Board authorised a loan of $25 million (£9 million) for the purchase. Credit to a total of $4 million (£1.6 million), to help to meet the total cost of $37 million (£13 million), has been extended by Boeing. More DC-9s for Iberia Twelve more DC-9s have, according to Interavia, been ordered by Iberia, bringing its future fleet of the type to 15. The first three ordered are due for delivery in June, July and August; the second series is due for delivery during the first nine months of 1967. No statement had, last week, been made by Douglas; the order was announced at a meeting in Madrid to Iberia representatives.
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