On 2 May 1953, BOAC Flight 783, a

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It features an aerodynamically clean design with four ...

jetliner registered G-ALYV and operated by

British Overseas Airways Corporation British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the United Kingdom, British state-owned national airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II ...

, broke up mid-air and crashed after encountering a severe

squall A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...

, shortly after taking off from

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(now Kolkata), India. All 43 passengers and crew on board were killed. The crash was followed in less than a year by two more fatal accidents involving structural failure of Comet aircraft:

BOAC Flight 781 BOAC Flight 781 was a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation passenger flight from Singapore to London. On 10 January 1954, a de Havilland Comet passenger jet operating the flight suffered an explosive decompression at altitude and crash ...

and

South African Airways Flight 201 South African Airways Flight 201 (SA201), a de Havilland Comet 1, took off at 18:32 UTC on 8 April 1954 from Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy, en route to Cairo, Egypt, on the second stage of its flight from London, England to Johannesburg, Sout ...

, after which the entire fleet was grounded until extensive redesign of the type was carried out, leading to the development of the Comet 2 version.

History of the flight

Flight 783 had originated in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and was a service to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. After a scheduled stopover at Calcutta's

Dum Dum Airport Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport () is an international airport serving the city of Kolkata and the Kolkata metropolitan area, the capital metropolis of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the primary aviation hub for eas ...

(now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport), the aircraft departed on 2 May at 16:29

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(10:59 GMT) on its next segment to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Six minutes after takeoff, while the jet was climbing to , radio contact with

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

was lost. At around the same time, witnesses on the ground near the village of Jagalgori, around north-west of Calcutta, observed the aircraft coming down in flames. Severe rain and thunderstorms were present in the area. The wreckage of G-ALYV was later found strewn along a track, with the main parts still on fire. There were no survivors.

Victims

The 43 people on board were 6 crew members and 37 passengers. The official report states that there were, of the passengers: 31 British, three Americans, two Burmese, and one Filipino on board. Among the victims were Australian politician

Trevor Oldham Trevor Donald Oldham (10 March 1900 – 2 May 1953) was an Australian politician, who was the leader of the Liberal Party in the state of Victoria from 1952 until his death in 1953. The eldest of three sons born to Arthur and Ethel Oldham, he w ...

and his wife. In the report, the Oldhams are listed as British nationals.

Investigation

The subsequent investigation found that, after encountering a squall, the aircraft "suffered

structural failure Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...

in the air which caused fire." The probable cause of the failure was reported as "overstressing which resulted from either: severe gusts encountered in the thundersquall, or overcontrolling or loss of control by the pilot when flying through the thunderstorm." The investigators also recommended "to consider if any modification to the structure of the Comet is necessary."

References

External links

Accident report
– Report by N.S. Lokur, republished in the United Kingdom by the Ministry of Civil Aviation {{DEFAULTSORT:Boac Flight 783 Accidents and incidents involving the de Havilland Comet Flight 783 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure Aviation accidents and incidents in India Aviation accidents and incidents in 1953 Disasters in West Bengal May 1953 in Asia 1953 in India