Aviation accident – engine failure and fire on take-off, 8 April 1968
BOAC Flight 712
The burning 707-465, showing the tail section's skin melted to expose its interior.
Accident
Date
8 April 1968
Summary
Uncontained engine failure resulting in number 2 engine catching fire and detaching
Site
Hounslow, United Kingdom
Aircraft
Aircraft type
Boeing 707-465
Operator
BOAC
IATA flight No.
BA712
Call sign
Speedbird 712
Registration
G-ARWE
Flight origin
London Heathrow Airport Middlesex, United Kingdom
1st stopover
Zürich Airport Zürich, Switzerland
2nd stopover
Singapore International Airport, Singapore
Destination
Sydney Airport Sydney, Australia
Occupants
127
Passengers
116
Crew
11
Fatalities
5
Injuries
38
Survivors
122
BOAC Flight 712 was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707-465 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via Zurich and Singapore. On Monday 8 April 1968, it suffered an engine failure on takeoff that quickly led to a major fire; the engine detached from the aircraft in flight. After the aircraft had made a successful emergency landing, confusion over checklists and distractions from the presence of a check pilot contributed to the deaths of five of the 127 on board. The direct cause of the fire was the failure of a compressor wheel, due to metal fatigue.
Flight attendant Barbara Jane Harrison was posthumously awarded the George Cross for heroism during the accident, another crew member received a British Empire Medal, and an air traffic controller was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. As a result of the accident, BOAC changed certain aspects of its emergency procedure checklists.
BOACFlight712 was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707-465 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via...
Harrison, was a British flight attendant who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her role in the evacuation of BOACFlight712. She is one of four...
exemplary manner in which the flight attendant briefed the passengers and handled the emergency". BOACFlight712, where a flight attendant, Barbara Jane Harrison...
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd...
Airport. BOACFlight712 1985 Manchester Airport disaster TWA Flight 843 Saudia Flight 163 United Airlines Flight 328 and United Airlines Flight 1175, other...
visibility. All 30 passengers and six crew on board died. On 8 April 1968, BOACFlight712 Boeing 707 G-ARWE, departing for Australia via Singapore, suffered...
an engine and pylon had fallen off a Boeing 707, being operated as BOACFlight712, resulting in five deaths. On 16 January 1987, a Transbrasil Boeing...
France Flight 212, a 707-328, crashed at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. All 62 passengers and crew on board were killed. April 8: BOACFlight712, a 707-465...
in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung. 1968 – BOACFlight712 catches fire shortly after takeoff. As a result of her actions in the...
On 8 April 1968 Wynter escaped from a burning Boeing 707 aircraft, BOACFlight712, upon which he had been a passenger, and which had exploded shortly...
[circular reference] In 2009 the government stipulated it would limit extra flights to 125,000 per year until 2020, rather than the full capacity of circa...
relatively small number of VC10s were built, they provided long service with BOAC and other airlines from the 1960s to 1981. The VC10 was also used from 1965...
1956 London Heathrow Avro Vulcan crash BOACFlight712 BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845 British Airways Flight 38 Miscellaneous Airlink helicopter shuttle...
the design stage, BOAC, Qantas and South African Airways decided to standardise on the Tudor II for Commonwealth air routes, and BOAC increased its initial...
from a broken neck and multiple skull fractures. Five people aboard BOACFlight712 were killed in a fire after the Boeing 707 lost an engine following...
Holdings's head office. Compass Centre previously served as a British Airways flight crew centre. The Compass Centre was originally conceived as speculative...
South American Airways (BSAA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) were the largest users of the type. In military service, large numbers of...
deliveries commenced of 30 British-built Lancastrians for BOAC. On a demonstration flight on 23 April 1945, G-AGLF flew 13,500 mi (21,700 km) from England...
Elizabeth Bell (actress) Jane Harrison (GC), died in April 1968 on board BOACFlight712 Kriss Brining, Rugby league player, York and Salford Joy Brook, actress...
involving commercial passenger and cargo flights, military passenger and cargo flights, or general aviation flights that have been involved in a ground or...
Japan to be involved in the investigation. The second fatal accident, BOACFlight712, also involved a Boeing 707. The aircraft suffered an un-contained...
initial discussions were held with British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) regarding the viability of the proposal. Avro is reported to have considered...
African Air Force. A civil operator, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), also operated a handful of Warwicks. In October 1932, the British industrial...
jet for trans-Atlantic flights to New York. SABENA was mainland Europe's first airline to operate a jet across the Atlantic (BOAC had been flying jet transatlantic...
crash is undetermined. All Nippon Airways Flight 61 – Hijacked and taken back over Tokyo, Japan. BOACFlight 911 – The aircraft was flying above Mount...
Global Information