Everything about South African Airways Flight 201 totally explained
South African Airways Flight 201, a
de Havilland Comet 1, took off at 18:32
GMT from
Ciampino Airport in
Rome, Italy en route to
Cairo,
Egypt, on the second stage of its flight from
London to
Johannesburg,
South Africa. The flight crashed, killing all aboard at around 19:07 GMT on
April 8,
1954. The flight was operated as a charter by
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) using the aircraft ("
Yoke Yoke"), with a
South African crew of seven, and carrying 14 passengers.
Flight and disaster
Flying as
SA201, Yoke Yoke took off from London for Rome at 13:00 GMT on Thursday
April 7,
1954, on the first leg southwards to Johannesburg, arriving at Rome approximately 2 1/2 hours later, at 17:35hrs. On arrival at Rome engineers discovered some minor faults, including a faulty
fuel-contents gauge, which delayed the aircraft's departure by some 25 hours, Yoke Yoke finally being ready to depart for Cairo on the evening of Thursday
8 April.
Commanded by Captain William Mostert, the aircraft took off for Cairo at 18:32hrs GMT and climbed rapidly towards its cruising height of 35,000 ft, the crew reporting over the
Ostia Beacon at 18:37hrs, passing 7,000 ft. The
weather was good but with an overcast sky.
Another report was made by the aircraft, first at 18:49hrs at
Ponza, where it reported climbing through 11,600 ft and another at 18:57hrs when it reported passing abeam of Naples. At 19:07hrs, while still climbing, the aircraft contacted Cairo on the long range
HF radio and reported an
ETA of 21:02hrs GMT.
This was the last thing heard from Yoke Yoke, as sometime after, unseen, the aircraft disintegrated in the night sky at around 35,000 ft, killing everyone onboard.
After repeated attempts at re-gaining contact by both Cairo and Rome were made, it was realised that another Comet had been lost. Initial news of the accident was leaked to the
press by a
German radio station which had been monitoring the radio transmissions.
Search, recovery and investigation
As soon as it heard of the crash BOAC once again voluntarily grounded all its Comets as it had done three months earlier after the
BOAC Flight 781 disaster. The
Italian air-sea rescue services were notified, and searching began at dawn the next day, subsequently involving the
Royal Navy carrier HMS Eagle and the destroyer
HMS Daring. Some time later in the day a report was received from a
BEA Ambassador aircraft of a patch of oil some 70 miles east of
Naples and bodies and wreckage in the water 30 miles south-east of
Stromboli. The depth of the Mediterranean Sea at the crash site meant that a salvage mission was ruled out as impractical.
Metal fatigue
At the time of the accident, the investigation into the crash of
BOAC Flight 781 was still in progress, but suspicion of the cause of the loss of Yoke Peter had fallen on the possibility of an
engine turbine failure. During the previous grounding of all Comets, modifications had since been made to the Comets, including Yoke Yoke, that seemed to eliminate this possibility. The investigation of BOAC 781 revealed manufacturer design defects and
metal fatigue that resulted ultimately in the
explosive decompression that caused both accidents.
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