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Aviation History
1968
1968-1 - 0092.PDF
970 AIR TRANSPORT... BEA SALE TO CHINA? TWO captains have been sent by BEA to sound out possible markets for the 13 Viscount 806s and ten Comet 4Bs which the Corporation is putting up for sale (see Flight for September 5, page 363). Peking, it is hoped, will be one of their calls, as the People's Republic of China already has Viscounts—it bought six 843s, the last of which was delivered in 1964. The two captains, Capt C. R. Pleasance and Capt G. Watson, will also visit the Middle and Far East and Africa. BEA hopes to sell the 23 aircraft for £6-7 million; asking price for a Viscount is reportedly £100,000, and for a Comet £500,000. SUNK WITHOUT TRACE AUTOMATIC flight control systems of Malaysia-Singapore Airlines' Boeing 707s and 737s will be checked out next year by a Hawker Siddeley Dynamics TRACE 600 system, which is due to be delivered to the airline's technical service base at Singapore International Airport during April next year. The TRACE 600 is expected to be operational by July. MSA expects the investment in this new equipment will reduce the cost of the spare-parts inventory, decrease the cost of overhauls and, by the use of automated testing techniques, will improve the reliability of its avionics equipment. TRACE automatic test equipment is now in use by 11 commercial operators, who have a total of 17 installations in service. FLIGHT International, 12 December I9i& Lympne Expansion Building work, which will double the size of the passenger and administration buildings at Lympne Airport, Kent, started last month for completion in April 1969, when it will be re-named Ashford Airport. Alaskan Accident There were no survivors among the 37 passengers and three crew of a Wien Alaska Airlines F-27 which crashed on December 2 at Lake Spotsy, about 100 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. Eyewitnesses reported that the tail broke away after an explosion and that the aircraft had previously been trailing smoke. Merger in Canada Quebecair and Eastern Provincial Airways have merged their operations. Both serve points in the Quebec and Atlantic provinces regions of Canada and the arrangement involves an exchange of equipment and routes. Quebecair has F-27s and DC-3s and EPA has Handley Page Heralds, DC-3s, a DC-4, a number of assorted single-engined and other types, and three S-55 helicopters. Monitoring Cat 3 ILS A contract worth £237,000 has been received by Plessey Radar from Mintech for two ILS radio environmental monitors. These are designed to check radio interference in the vicinity of aircraft immediately prior to landing—monitoring the quality of the ILS signal as this is being received by an approaching aircraft. The order is part of an all-weather operations programme originated by Mintech and carried out by the RAE, BLEU and radio/radar manufac turers. The equipment will be used during operations in Category 3C conditions. 196Ts POOR INDEPENDENT SAFETY RECORD BY ALL NORMAL YARDSTICKS 1967 was a very poor year for safety on non-scheduled services, but a good one on scheduled services by British airlines. In fact, the only fatal accident on scheduled passenger services was that to the BEA Comet 4B, which was caused by a high-explosive device; so, probable sabotage apart, British airlines had a clean 1967 record on these services. The table below, based on those in the Board of Trade's annual survey just published,* gives the figures for most of the criteria used and compares them with the average figures for the past five years. There were, however, a number of serious incidents on scheduled services which, but for good flight-crew management and/or good luck, might have caused the year's record to be statistically disastrous. There was, for instance, the case of the engine disintegration involving a BOAC Boeing 707-465 at Honolulu on November 21, 1967. During the take-off run there was an explosion in the starboard outer engine. The take-off was abandoned successfully, but fire developed under the starboard wing and had to be extinguished by the airport fire services. Examination showed that, as a result of the failure of the main thrust bearing, the No. 1 low-pressure turbine disc disintegrated, causing severe damage to the rear of the engine and considerable secondary damage to the wing and undercarriage. 'Accidents to aircraft on the British register, 1967; a survey. HMSO, 8s 6d net. Other near-disasters included the loss, after take-off, of the starboard propeller of a Cambrian Airways DC-3 near Glasgow (see Flight for May 23, 1968, page 779); the loss of a section of the starboard flap of a BOAC Super VC10 on approach to J. F. Kennedy Airport, New York; a near-collision over Belgium involving a BEA Comet 4B in violent evasive action; the two overrun accidents with Channel Airways HS.748s at Portsmouth Airport on August 15; and an undershoot at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, by a BEA Trident 1 in which the port wheels struck a 30in-diameter metal pipe before touching down, with full power, some 30yd short of the end of the runway. Apart from the accident to the Air Ferry DC-4 (see Flight for November 21, pages 817-818) while on the approach to Frankfurt during an all-cargo flight—the only other fatal accident on scheduled services—there were two fatal accidents to aircraft of independent airlines on non-scheduled (inclusive- tour) flights during 1967. These were those involving the British Midland Canadair C-4 at Stockport (see Flight for August 29, pages 320-321) and to the Air Ferry DC-4 near Perpignan (see page 969 of this issue). In these two accidents 152 passengers and eight crew members were killed. Against a background of 3,834 million passenger-miles performed in the year, this total represents nearly four passenger fatalities for 100 million passenger-miles, by comparison with the figures of 8,742 million and 0.67 respectively for British scheduled services. Passenger-carrying services: Scheduled Non-scheduled Total All services Fatal accidents sir 100,000 stage flights 1967 0.29 3.43 0.74 0.94 Average 1963-67 0.30 1.15 0.42 0.50 Fatal accidents per 100 million aircraft miles 1967 0.68 4.07 1.53 1.93 Average 1963-67 0.76 I.S2 0.94 1.(1 Fatal accidents per 100,000 hr flown 1967 0.21 1.19 0.47 0.58 Average 1963-67 0.22 0.41 0.27 0.31 Passengers killed Passengers killed per 100 million j per 100,000 passenger-miles j passengers carried 1967 0.67 3.96 1.68 n/a Average 1963-67 0.83 1.67 1.07 n/a 1967 0.48 4.41 1.34 n/a Average 1963-67 0.56 2.04 0.83 n/a n/a=not applicable
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