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)

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.

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:

On 6 August 1946, at Airways House in London, the BOAC chairman gave a press conference describing the progress made by the corporation since his previous report at the start of 1946. One element of his statement went as follows:

“The Liberator Return Ferry Service reached its 2,000th Atlantic crossing in February and is now nearing its 2,500th“.

He also commented that “The first London to New York service opened on July 1“.

In the middle of 1945, a BOAC fleet list was published as of March that year. Here is the extract relating to the Return Ferry Service: