BOAC Flight 781

Flight 781 was commanded by Captain Alan Gibson DFC, age 31, one of BOAC's youngest pilots. The first officer on Flight 781 was William John Bury, age 33. He had flown a total of approximately 4,900 hours. The second officer was Francis Charles Macdonald, age 27, and the radio operator was Luke Patrick McMahon, age 32. They had logged 720 flying hours and close to 3,600 flying hours, respectively. Many of them were students of schools in the United Kingdom and had visited their families that had been residing in Asia. Three employees of BOAC and one employee of British European Airways were passengers on the accident segment. Additionally, six passengers were related to BOAC employees. Among the casualties were Chester Wilmot, a prominent Australian journalist and military historian working for the BBC, and Dorothy Beecher Baker, a Hand of the Cause of God for the Baháʼí Faith. Wilmot first joined the flight in Rangoon, and Baker first joined the flight in Karachi. ==Flight and accident==

On the day of the accident, the Comet went through its routine preflight inspection in Rome, and was checked for "incidental damage"; none was found. The aircraft was therefore released to service. The same team of engineers a few months later examined South African Airways Flight 201 before its final flight. Flight 781 departed from Rome at 10:31 CET (09:31 UTC) on 10 January 1954, on the final stage of its flight to London. At about 10:50 CEST, a BOAC Argonaut, registration G-ALHJ, piloted by Captain Johnson, which was flying the same route at a lower altitude, was in contact with Captain Gibson. During a radio communication about weather conditions, the conversation was abruptly cut off. The last words heard from Gibson were "George How Jig, from George Yoke Peter, did you get my—". Soon afterwards, witnesses saw wreckage falling into the sea. Heathrow Airport initially listed Flight 781 as being delayed, but it was removed from the arrivals board at around 1:30 pm. ==Search and recovery==

In its issue dated 11 January 1954, The New York Times published a report stating that a British Comet jet airliner had plunged into the sea near the western coast of Italy, specifically between the islands of Elba and Montecristo. As per the report, it was strongly suspected that the tragic incident had claimed the lives of 35 people. Extensive recovery operations were carried out overnight, yet despite thorough searches in the frigid waters, prospects of finding any survivors were bleak. The wreckage was returned to the United Kingdom by . Witnesses to the crash were a group of Italian fishermen who rushed to the scene to recover the bodies and to search for possible survivors, of whom there were none. The aircraft wreckage was eventually found on the sea floor; it was subsequently raised and transported to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) for investigation. ==Initial findings and reaction==

To find more evidence concerning the cause of the crash, the bodies were brought to the coroner for post-mortem. During the examination, pathologist Antonio Fornari found broken and damaged limbs, which had apparently occurred after death. He also discovered in most of the victims a distinct pattern of injuries, consisting of fractured skulls and ruptured and otherwise damaged lungs, which he identified as the actual cause of death. Fornari was confused by the pattern of injuries because he could find no evidence of an explosion. While the official investigation efforts began, BOAC were determined to return their Comets to passenger service as soon as possible, and succeeded in doing so on 23 March, just ten weeks after the crash. BOAC's chairman commented on television, "We obviously wouldn't be flying the Comet with passengers if we weren't satisfied conditions were suitable." However, a second BOAC de Havilland Comet, registered G-ALYY, was lost on 8 April 1954: a charter flight, operating as South African Airways Flight 201, departed from Rome bound for Egypt with fourteen passengers and seven crew on board; thirty-three minutes into the flight the pilot reported on course flying at 10,000 metres, then all contact was lost. Sir Arnold Hall, a Cambridge University scholar and scientist and then-head of the RAE, was appointed as the head accident investigator. ==Original investigation==

Initial examination and reconstruction of the wreckage of G-ALYP revealed several signs of inflight break-up: • Shreds of cabin carpet were found trapped in the remains of the Comet's tail section. • The imprint of a coin was found on a fuselage panel from the rear of the aircraft. • Smears and scoring on the rear fuselage were tested and found to be consistent to the paint applied to the passenger seats of the Comet. With most of the wreckage recovered, investigators found that fractures started in the roof of the cabin, a window then smashed into the elevators, the rear fuselage then tore away, the outer wing structure fell, then the outer wing tips and finally the cockpit broke away, and fuel from the wings set the debris on fire. To find out what caused the first failure, BOAC donated G-ALYU ("Yoke Uncle") for testing. The airframe was put in a large water tank, the tank was filled, and water was pumped into the plane to simulate flight conditions. The experiment was run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. It could possibly have taken as long as five months. ==Effects of the disaster and findings==

The Comet's pressure cabin had been designed to a safety factor comfortably in excess of that required by British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR)—the requirement was 1.33 times P with an ultimate load of 2 times P (where P is the cabin's "Proof" pressure), but the safety factor used in the Comet was 2.5 times P—hence the accident led to revised estimates for the safe loading strength requirements of airliner pressure cabins. ==Memorial==

There is a memorial in the cemetery of Porto Azzurro, where some of the victims are buried and with a list of those (20) whose remains were never found. ==In popular culture==

This accident was featured on National Geographic's Seconds from Disaster, "Comet Air Crash". ==See also==

• Official Report (1955), Report of the Public Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the accident which occurred on the 10th January, 1954, to the Comet aircraft G-ALYP. • Stewart, Stanley (1986/89). Air Disasters. Arrow Books (UK). . • Baker, Elaine (2020) Another Place Another Time. Golden Age Publishers. ==Further reading==