EXTRACTS FROM THE TIMES SATURDAY APRIL 10TH 1954
COMET WRECKAGE AND BODIES FOUND
_______________________
WITHDRAWAL OF AIR WORTHINESS CERTIFICATE
It was announced last night that the United
Kingdom certificate of
airworthiness of all Comet aircraft has been withdrawn pending
detailed
investigation into the causes of the recent disasters.
After one of the most widespread air-sea searches ever
undertaken, wreckage of the
B.O.A.C. Comet airliner which crashed in the Mediterranean on Thursday
night, about 200
miles from Rome, has been found.
The Admiralty stated last night that five bodies had been
recovered and were in
H.M.S. Eagle.
................. Wreckage and bodies were sighted in the sea yesterday
from a B.E.A.
Elizabethan airliner near the area where a large patch of oil, 70 miles
due south of
Naples, had given the first clue to the probable fate of the B.O.A.C.
Comet G-ALYY.
.................. The position at which the wreckage and bodies were
seen is about 25
miles from the Italian mainland, on the course the aircraft should have
been flying.
Although the Comet belonged to B.O.A.C. it was being flown by a South
African airways crew
of seven; it carried 14 passengers, of whom 11 embarked at London
Airport and 3 at Rome.
Seven of the passengers were British, three American, two South
African, one Swiss and one
Egyptian.
................ The Airliner had left London Airport for Johannesburg
at 3 p.m. on
Wednesday. It was delayed in Rome for 24 hours because repairs were
necessary to a fuel
contents gauge. It took off from Rome at 6.25 p.m. on Thursday, and the
last contact with
it was a routine message received at Rome Airport at 6.57 p.m.
reporting its position as
abeam Naples. The airliner was due to reach Cairo at 9.20 p.m; when it
did not arrive it
was reported overdue.
When the suspension order was given, B.O.A.C. Comet G-ALYU was at
London Airport
ready to set out for Johannesburg at 3 p.m. yesterday. G-ALYW had
reached Colombo, having
reopened the London - Ceylon service. It was due to start on the return
flight at 8 a.m.
yesterday. G-ALYX had left Khartoum for Cairo, and is remaining at
Cairo. B.O.A.C.
made arrangements yesterday to convey the stranded passengers either on
their own services
or, if necessary on those of other airlines.
LIST OF CREW AND PASSENGERS
Crew: Captain WK Mostert, first officer BJ Grove,
navigation officer AE
Sissing, radio officer BE Webbstock, engineer officer AR Lagesen,
air hostess PL
Reitz and flight steward JB Kok.
Passengers: Mr OL Anderson, Mr & Mrs AB Brooks, Miss DM Eady, Mr FH
Harbison, Mr MA
Lamloum, Dr J Staurt, Mr RL Wilkinson, Miss N Young, Capt. JA Collings,
Mr JF
Murray-White, Mr ES Hack, Mr J Rosenburg and Mr Salzman.