______________________________________
Mr Lennox-Boyd, Minister of Transport and Civil
Aviation, left
London Airport for Rome last night to learn at first hand of the
problems still
confronting those engaged in the search for the B.O.A.C. Comet,
which crashed in the
Mediterranean, off Elba, last Sunday.
Before leaving, Mr Lennox-Boyd said that any part of the Comet
recovered would
probably be sent back to Farnborough for research.
The Admiralty stated yesterday that Admiral Lord
Mountbatten,
Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, had undertaken the coordination of
efforts to find and
salve the wreck.
The frigate Wrangler, an anti-submarine vessel, which is fitted
with Asdic, the
underwater detection apparatus, and H.M.S. Sursay, a vessel employed
for the laying of
small marker buoys at sea, are sailing from Malta to the scene and are
expected to arrive
on Wednesday. The salvage vessel Sea Salvor and boom defence vessel,
Barhill, will sail
from Malta when gear is loaded.
An Admiralty spokesman said last night that naval television
equipment was being
prepared to be flown out, either to Malta or to Italy, as requested
from the scene of
operations.
________________
The B.O.A.C. stated on Saturday that no structural weakness had been found in any of the Comet aircraft which have been examined at London Airport. The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation have announced that a public inquiry will be held into the disaster.
SERVICE AT SEA
__________
MINISTER TO ATTEND
From our own Correspondent Rome, Jan 17
The funeral service
for 10 of the victims of last Sunday’s Comet disaster, which was to
have been held
to-day at Porto Azzurro, the Elban fishing village where the bodies
were landed when
recovered from the sea, has been postponed until to-morrow, as has the
service which it is
planned to hold at sea over the place where the Comet is believed to
have plunged into the
water.
Mr Lennox-Boyd, Minister of Transport, is to attend both
services. The remains of
the other five victims on Elba have been claimed by the relatives, and
will be taken from
the island for the last rites according to their respective faiths.
The last six of the 15 bodies recovered are now reported to have
been identified as
those of Captain V Wolfson, R.N.V.R. of the B.O.A.C., who joined the
Comet at
Bangkok; Mr J Steel, stated to be a former
heavyweight boxing champion of the British Army, who joined at
Singapore, Mr GB
Grilly, of the B.O.A.C.; and Miss H Yateen, aged 17, who joined at
Bahrain; and Mr J
Ramsden and Mr D Leaver, who joined at Beirut.
An Italian company which has the requisite equipment has been
asked to try to
establish the exact location of the wreckage of the Comet. If
this can be
pinpointed, salvage will certainly be attempted by British vessels,
probably from Malta,
whence recovery units are already reported to have been instructed to
proceed to Elba. The
approximate position was ascertained by the Italian commission of
inquiry before it turned
over responsibility for further investigation to the British
authorities.
Senior officials of the Philippine Airlines have arrived here
from Manilla and
America to assist in the investigation of the accident on Thursday when
a DC6 airliner of
that company crashed a few miles from Ciampino airport.
At least outwardly, this accident appears to bear little
resemblance to that
of the Comet (which some newspapers are trying to link in theories of
“double
sabotage”, based partly on Elba reports that the doctors who
conducted the
autopsies remarked that the bodies of the Comet victims showed signs of
lacerations of the
lower limbs as if from a powerful explosion from below.)
From: THE TIMES 18th January 1954 page 6
