British Jet Crashes After Being Caught in Calcutta Storm

The aircraft, on its Singapore-London flight, broke up mid-air, killing all 43 people aboard

- HT Correspondent

CALCUTTA: A London-bound British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Comet crashed in flames into a paddy field about 40km northwest of Calcutta shortly after taking off from Dum Dum on Saturday evening, killing 43 people on board, including two infants, 10 women and a crew of six.

The aircraft, on its Singapore-London flight, made a perfect take-off for Delhi at 4.30pm. The plane, according to reports, was caught in a storm and exploded mid-air. When the aircraft was reported overdue in Delhi, where it was scheduled to land at 6.50pm, the authorities alerted all airports and police stations to watch out for the missing Comet.

In the early hours of Sunday, the Indian Air Force and BOAC sent out search planes for the missing plane. A BOAC Yorker after a brief search, located the wreckage.

Although about two hours after the accident, a police station 32km from Calcutta received reports of the crash, it was not possible to rush aid due to the inaccessibility of the place where the aircraft had crashed, nor could the accident be reported to Calcutta the same night, as the storm had cut communication lines.