CF-CZB  Bristol 175 Britannia 314            (c/n  13394)

                                          

                                                 This nice shot is from the Bristol Aeroplane Company, taken at Filton prior to delivery to CPAL
                                                 in April of 1958.  The aircraft was, in fact, built by Short Bros. under licence.  Canadian Pacific
                                                 named it 'Empress of Vancouver'.    On 22 July 1962 the aircraft departed Honolulu on Flight
                                                 323 for Sydney, via Fiji and Auckland when, two minutes after becoming airborne, a fire warning
                                                 sounded for the No.1 engine.    The No.1 prop was immediately feathered and the pilot elected
                                                 to return to Honolulu.   After dumping most of the fuel an ILS approach was made but the aircraft
                                                 flared too high and a go around was attempted.   The aircraft was seen to veer sharply to the left
                                                 and the wing tip struck the ground.  The aircraft then struck some earth-moving equipmernt and
                                                 broke up.  Twenty-seven of the 40 persons aboard were killed.  The official cause of the accident
                                                 was stated as "The attempted three-engine go-around, when the aircraft was in a full landing
                                                 configuration, at insufficient airspeed and altitude to maintain control."
                                                 Some 50 years after this accident (in March 2012) I was contacted by John E. Pudney (living
                                                 today in Northcliffe, West Australia) whose father, Arthur Pudney, was killed in this disastrous
                                                 crash.
                                                 John states:  "I was just a boy of 9 years old at the time, living in Los Gatos, California. . I have
                                                 vivid memories of the morning after the flight.     The police and a man from the airline knocked
                                                 on our door at about 7:30 am.  But I already knew my father was dead.....I had dreamed about
                                                 it that night.  ..And when I woke up in the morning before the knock on the door. I knew before
                                                 I was told,..........."
                                                 (Such premonitions are, I am told, quite common)    John sent me a complete set of newspaper
                                                 clippings of the crash and appended below is the front page of the Sydney Daily Mirror for July
                                                 24,1962.  The other clippings reveal details as to the intensity of the resultant magnesium fire in
                                                 this, the first commercial fatality at Honolulu International Airport.