1954 BOAC Lockheed Constellation crash

The aircraft was operating a joint Qantas–BOAC scheduled passenger flight from Sydney, Australia, to London, England. Following a stopover at Jakarta, Indonesia, it crashed while landing at Kallang Airport. Captain Trevor Hoyle was the pilot. The aircraft was a Lockheed L-749A Constellation, a low-wing monoplane airliner with four Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone radial engines. It had first flown in the United States in 1947. Originally part of an order by Eastern Air Lines it was re-allocated to the Irish airline Aerlínte Éireann and delivered on 16 September 1947. It was sold in 1948 by Aerlínte Éireann, along with five other Constellations, to British Overseas Airways Corporation. It had been registered as G-ALAM and named Belfast. ==Accident==

The accident occurred when the aircraft struck a seawall on approach to Runway 06 at Kallang, damaging the undercarriage and causing a leak from the number three wing fuel tank. As the aircraft touched down a second time, on the runway, the undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft slid until the starboard wing broke off. The remainder of the aircraft rolled to the right, coming to rest upside down with the fuselage in two pieces, and one of the engines carried on for another . The aircraft was already on fire when it came to rest. No attempt was made to use the emergency exits, and the main cabin door was jammed; at the inquiry a fire expert attached to the RAF stated that the door of the Constellation was the most difficult he had had to open in his 24-year firefighting career. All 31 passengers died, along with 2 crew members (the other crew fatality being a steward). It is the highest death toll of any aviation accident ever to take place in Singapore. Among the victims was Ami Chandra, a noted Fijian educator and president of the Fiji Industrial Workers Congress, Professor Francis Cecil Chalkin, Dean of the Science Faculty at the University of Canterbury, Professor Robert Orr McGechan, Dean of the Law Faculty at Victoria University of Wellington and architect Thomas Herbert Bates from New Plymouth. ==Public inquiry==

The colonial government held a public inquiry into the accident under Justice Knight from 31 May to 16 August. The accident was attributed to poor execution of the approach due to crew tiredness, which exacerbated the pilot's decision to touch down near the end of the runway. The inquiry criticised the airport fire unit's lack of equipment and the efforts it made to rescue the passengers in the six- to eight-minute period after the aircraft came to rest, when many were probably still alive. It did not censure the aircraft crew but did not commend their actions either, noting they were suffering from shock and the darkness and fumes. ==Aftermath==

Twenty-four of the victims, including fourteen who were not identified, were buried together in a communal grave at Bidadari Cemetery. Two crash victims were mistaken for one another and received funeral rites of the other's religion. BOAC based four captains in Sydney so the Sydney–Darwin and Darwin–Jakarta routes could be flown by separate captains. ==References==