COMET SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27011, 10 April 1953, Page 10

COMET SERVICE

EFFECT OF KARACHI PLANE CRASH REPLACEMENT PROBLEM “The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, April 9. There is no possibility of any further production of the Comet Series I or lA, says a statement received in Auckland from the de Havilland Aircraft Company, Ltd., Hatfield, England. The statement was in reply to an inquiry about a replacement for the Comet IA lost by Canadian Pacific Airlines at Karachi recently. . The company has already switched to the production of the Series 11. The Series 111 will follow. Canadian Pacific Airlines were to use two Comets on a Pacific service passing through Auckland. The statement says: “As to the future plans of Canadian Pacific Airlines, it is not possible at this stage to say anything at all because the whole project is under discussion. Apart from expressing complete confidence in the Comet, the airline has not yet made any announcement about its plans for opening the Comet service.” The statement says that only 21 Comet Series I and IA will be built, and these have all been ordered. The second Canadian Pacific Comet is still at Hatfield, After the Karachi crash, the aviation correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald” wrote that one of the two jet transports ordered for the Royal Canadian Air Force might be handed over to the airline. The de Havilland statement says that the first Comet has been handed over to the Air Force and that the second one is undergoing its trials. .