BOAC Flight 781

Name: BOAC Flight 781
Address: IT

1954 in ItalyAccidents and incidents involving the de Havilland CometAirliner accidents and incidents caused by design or manufacturing errorsAirliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failureAirliner accidents and incidents involving in-flight depressurization ... and 4 more

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1954Aviation accidents and incidents in ItalyBritish Overseas Airways Corporation accidents and incidentsEngvarB from July 2014

BOAC Flight 781 (BA781/BOA781) was a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) passenger flight from Singapore to London. On 10 January 1954, a de Havilland Comet passenger jet operating the flight suffered an explosive decompression at altitude and crashed, killing all 35 people on board. The aircraft, registered G-ALYP, had taken off shortly before from Ciampino Airport in Rome, en route to Heathrow Airport in London, on the final leg of its flight from Singapore. After it exploded, the debris from the explosion fell into the sea near the island of Elba, off the Italian coast. G-ALYP was the third Comet built. Its loss marked the second in a series of three fatal accidents involving the Comet in less than twelve months, all caused by structural failures; it followed the crash of BOAC Flight 783 near Calcutta, India, in May 1953, and was followed by the loss of South African Airways Flight 201 in April 1954, which crashed in circumstances similar to BOAC 781 after departing from Ciampino Airport.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article BOAC Flight 781 (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).