OO-CBG Accident Report

The OO-CBG Accident Report has just been posted on the website . Tom Beard wrote a summary at the beginning followed by the official report itself. Some of the events that led up to the accident are very indicative of this era, that being this was the start of commercial air travel with a definite lack of accepted rules and regulations. Accidents like this were bound to happen before findings were noted, with lessons learned and recommendations enacted upon. One would have to notice the flight crew were very young, with little experience. Was age or the lack of experience an important factor or was it the fact that the crew being in operational status for over 16 hours, that created poor judgment caused by fatigue? It wasn’t mentioned as a contributing factor in the official report. However they did state that pilot error was the key to the accident with no recommendation to consider a maximum operational flying time.

Another point, not only was the accident the first by a commercial air carrier in the world but this report was the also first and only aircraft accident report made by the Government of Nfld. That should be a good trivial question for the aviation buffs out there.

Sure would like to hear comments on this one.

OO-CBG Final Flight Path

I just received email from Tom Beard, a retired Lt. Commander from the USCG, who has sent us his research on the Probable Final Flight Path of OO-CBG . He has also collected more detailed information plus the accident report which I hope he will send along at a later date. If it does happen,  I certainly will be adding the information to this section.

Sabena Rescue Photos

For those who went looking for those  Sabena Rescue Photos as listed in the update page, well, they are there now. Just a little bit of finger/brain trouble. The slide show is played through an Adobe Spry Widget which I don't have much control over. In my opinion it is a little too fast but that is easily corrected if you want to take over manually. Just click on the picture and the auto feature will stop. Now you will have to click for each photo after. You can also start the auto again by watching for the 'start' icon when moving the mouse over the photo. As for the slide show, if you read some of the USCG documents you will easily follow the story. The slide show is in chronological order as much as possible. I will have some film clips which I hope to add later. Right now we are waiting for copy write permission before that happens.

American Side

A new photo has been posted in the American Side/Living Areas page, Galleries section, 1946-1958 era. The photo is an aerial view of the American Side , circa 1948. This could be considered as being in the 'priceless' category, donated by Ron Chafe. Just how many pictures are out there like this, buried away in those old shoe boxes. Eventually we will be building a model of the old airport as it stood in this era and those photos will be vital in piecing it all together. We ask everyone, if you have any of these pictures, please get them scanned and send them along to us. They are very valuable in documenting  the history of the airport.

The tea is good as well.

We have just added to Galleries in the 1946-1958 era - A Mystery Photo. It was contributed by Bob Pelley who discovered these photos in the USA. We have blown up the photo to try and show the faces of the individuals standing around in front of the terminal arrival/departure area.. Identifying some of these people may help us track down as to what this occasion might have been. We sure would like some input here to try and solve this little mystery.

Welcome to the coffee shop. Grab yourself a cup and have a chat with us.

I just completed a new section in the 1946-1958 era called Sabena Crash. Thanks to the US Coast Guard Assoc. for letting us publish this material. It is really worth reading especially the heroic effort made to save these  survivors. To me it was almost like reading a fiction book. This would certainly make a wonderful movie if the right people could read about these events. Another point about the ordeal was that it took 59 years to recognize officially the work of Dr. Sam Martin. That’s in it’s self is sad that the award had to be made posthumously. I might also add, there was some pretty fancy flying done by those helicopter and PBY flight crews.