The Comet
Until the wreckage of the BOAC Comet airliner which crashed into the sea off the island of Elba has been salvaged and thoroughly examined, any attempt to put a finger on the cause of the crash can be nothing but ill-founded speculation. The Corporation's temporary withdrawal of the remain-der of its Comet fleet for " a minute and unhurried technical examination " is unquestionably the wisest and most prudent procedure to follow, and implies no lack of faith in jet aircraft. A year ago in somewhat similar circumstances the Corporation withdrew its Stratocruisers when engine seizure through oiling troubles was suspected, but no one suggested that piston engines were inherently unsound because they contain 'a greater number of moving parts than jet engines. Of the two previous fatal Comet crashes, one was due to an error on take-off and the other occurred when the aircraft was caught in an unusually severe storm. But the Comet has flown in such a blaze of publicity that any suspicion of failure could be fatal to the growing British pre-eminence in air transport. It is significant as a measure of the public's faith in the aircraft that between the announcement of the accident and the voluntary withdrawal from service of the aircraft only one intending passenger, of the thousands who had booked for future flights, cancelled his passage. Confidence of that order is based on something more than publicity.
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