BOAC Comet Buzzed By A CNAF Sabre

The 14 February ’59 Associated Press report was carried in the press the next day, which presumably prompted the reply by Rear Admiral Liu Hohtu on the 16th (see Post #2 above by Sabrejet)

Following up the information provided above, a bit of digging around found that, on 14 February 1959, Associated Press in London reported that a spokesman for BOAC had described the incident ‘that day’ (that is, two weeks after it had occurred): “One of the jets closed to within six feet of the Comet’s wing tip. We have photographic evidence of this dangerous flying”. There was one Sabre on either side of the Comet and the captain (Clifford Alabaster) took no evasive action.

Thanks for all the above contributions – much appreciated.

Despite the apparent evidence in the first photo, I was never entirely convinced that it was G-APDD, since the final digit wasn’t squared off enough in the edge nearer the fuselage. I might have gone for G-APDO but that, as far as I can gather, wasn’t delivered to BOAC until later in 1959. So G-APDC it was and the photo must have some kind of ‘shadow’ disguising that.

It also makes a lot of sense that it would be a proving flight – the first of six according to the articles in FLIGHT magazine. The article doesn’t specify the height at which the ‘buzzing’ took place but I imagine that G-APDC was considerably higher than the height at which a BOAC Britannia would have flown that leg. If there was indeed some kind of ‘snafu’ in the clearance process, I’d’ve thought an aircraft flying higher and faster than the norm would be likely attract attention. It was interesting to read that G-APDC, at one point on its journey, diverted to a CNAF fighter base – ironic, really.

I also found the discussion about the role of (and need for, or otherwise) the flight engineer fascinating, if only because, as a student, I once got a summer job working for BOAC (in one of the ‘Kremlin’ offices overlooking a hangar) and my task was based on the flight engineer’s log. It contained all the fuel level figures at the various stages en route and, by then converting all the fuel purchases from litres and U.S. gallons into Imperial gallons and converting all the local currencies into £s sterling at the exchange rate applying on the day of purchase, I had to arrive at the total cost of fuel for the whole journey. My calculations were checked (or spot-checked) from time to time I seem recall that there was reference to the temperature prevailing at the refuelling points en route, too, but the specifics of this elude me. The flight engineer had to check the amount of fuel taken on board each time and to sign everything off at each stage. And, of course, there were multiple stopping points on the long distance services in those days, so it was not an inconsiderable responsibility.

As another personal aside, I also noted the reference to the climb rate of the Comet. My own first flight in a Comet (a BEA 4B in mid-April 1962) was also my first flight in a jet and my first night flight and I can still recall being impressed (awed even) by the angle at which we climbed. Having only flown before in a Viking, in Viscounts and Vanguards, not to mention a Bristol Wayfarer and a Thruxton Jackaroo, the difference was dramatic. It was a service back to LAP from Majorca, where I’d seen Bf109s, He111s, Ju52s (Spanish-built ones anyway) taking off and a solitary Do24 landing in Palma harbour, the contrast could hardly have been greater.

The number of times that the planned route had to be changed because of military exercises was a bit of a surprise. I would have thought those would have been known about far enough in advance to be taken into account at the route planning stage. As scotavia described, the liaison between military and civilian controllers was not always as comprehensive as I had imagined.

Having filed and addressed thousands of flight plans when part of my RAF job I can add that making sure everyone who needs a copy is sent one is at times a challenge as the routes cross boundaries.. Even with the use of the documents it was certainly tricky. I marked up charts with boundaries highlighted and address blocks marked. Some countries had seperate addresses for the air defence mil departments which had to be added next to the air traffic ones.. Interesting to see the outcome of missing out one in this instance . Military pilots have in many cases a desire to get close to intercepted traffic and still feel safe, where as the airline crews understandably feel very unhappy.

Ha! You’re quite right. And in Flight by 6th February.
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1959/1959%20-%200371.html?search=formosa

I knew I’d seen that photo in there. Had myself convinced it was at the top of the page and so completely missed it as I was scanning through after finding the full trip report. :stupid:

Incident was 30th January: photos in papers by 16th Feb.

Although the photos appears to show otherwise, the aircraft was in fact G-APDC. The flight was actually a BOAC route proving flight, prior to the introduction of the Comet 4 on the Far Eastern routes. The passengers were mostly BOAC staff (most of them crews getting a first taste of the route), with a few invited journalists amongst them.
Flight for the time has a nice two-part write-up of the whole evolution, starting here:
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1959/1959%20-%200391.html
and continuing here:
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1959/1959%20-%200430.html
For those that just want the Sabre story, it’s here:
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1959/1959%20-%200434.html

The pictures above didn’t ‘leak out’ until some time later, by which time the story had grown a bit in the telling. If I remember correctly, the intercept was due to inflexibility in the Taiwanese system (that was BOAC’s view, anyway!), in that the BOAC flight plan had been correctly filed with the appropriate civil authorities, but since it was a one-off, and particularly since it was doing things that civil aircraft had not previously done in that area, it should have been also notified to the military. BOAC were not expected (in fact were probably not able) to talk directly to the Taiwanese military, the civil authorities should have done so on clearance of their flight plan, but hadn’t.

Needless to say, with a plane full of pilots, everyone was very ‘interested’ in how close the Sabre got. One story says they may even have bumped wingtips, although no damage was found on landing – but several people thought the wingtips had overlapped for a time, and more than a few were convinced they weren’t going to survive the experience!

Ian,

I seem to recall another RoCAF F-86F intercept of a Viscount around this time. The various skirmishes in the Straits of Formosa caused a few stirs in the mid-to-late 1950s and in terms of Sabre incidents, the RF-86F which landed at Kai Tak and was eventually returned to the Republic of China (in pieces, labelled as ‘tractor spares’) is probably the most noteworthy.

I should have added that the Chinese Nationalists’ Sabres had been engaged in a ‘shooting war’ with Communist China’s MiGs in the autumn of 1958, so I imagine that they were still ‘on alert’ in January 1959.

Thanks very much, Sabrejet. My note, handwritten by this then-teenager, seemed a little too detailed not to be correct but I had some doubt about it. The final digit of the Comet’s registration is not entirely clear but appears to be ‘D’ (or, perhaps, a similarly-shaped letter). The identity of one of the Sabres is pretty clear, as can be seen below.

If the incident only got in the press because a passenger took some photos and made them available to the press, it may make one wonder if the same sort of thing happened on other occasions. I suspect not, for the following reason.

In 1958, BOAC were using Brittanias on the route that included the Hong Kong-Tokyo leg. There were three services per week and one arrived in Tokyo two days after leaving London (e.g. dep. London on a Tuesday, arr. Tokyo on the Thursday). The return journey was ‘quicker’, of course. By 1959, Comet 4s had replaced the Brittanias and possibly ran more services per week. Anyway, I wonder if the change was made in late-1958 or early-1959 and the Taiwanese wanted to check out the BOAC jets. Just a thought.

Anyway, here’s the other photo of the Sabre (with the caveats expressed in my earlier post). I have slightly lightened the image to make its identity a bit clearer:

Yes it did get coverage. I haven’t looked lately but my notes from a good decade ago:

On 30th January 1959, two RoCAF F-86Fs ‘buzzed’ a BOAC Comet airliner with 50 passengers and crew aboard, off the coast of Taiwan. The Comet was travelling from Hong Kong to Tokyo. One of the Sabres reportedly came within 6 feet of the Comet’s starboard wing tip. The incident would have received little attention had not one of the passengers taken photographs of the incident and leaked them to the press. However, despite complaints to the Taiwan government, they continued to deny the incident had happened. On 16th February 1959, Rear Admiral Liu Hohtu stated; “Nothing like that ever happened. Our chaps have a lot of other things to do. Why should they interfere with an airliner?” This typified the Taiwanese attitude, but the photographic evidence was irrefutable proof. One of the Sabres involved was 52-4517/F-86172 with shark mouth markings and black/yellow/black/yellow/black fuselage band and checkered tail – the markings of 3rd Fighter Wing.