Why the World's First Jet Airliner Kept Breaking Apart in the Sky

Within two years of carrying its first passengers, three de Havilland Comets, the world's first jet airliner, broke up in flight, and this is why. Off Elba in 1954, a captain's radio call stops mid-sentence. The Royal Navy searches the seabed while Farnborough sets out to break a Comet on purpose. Then a test that once said the cabin was safe comes under question. You leave knowing how metal fatigue works in plain words, and how the Comet changed the way pressure cabins are tested. CHAPTERS 0:00 Last Words Over Elba 1:11 A Cabin Pushed Outward 2:56 What Metal Fatigue Is 3:50 The Calcutta Storm Crash 4:40 Searching the Seabed Off Elba 6:18 Return to Service and Naples 7:51 Breaking a Comet in a Tank 9:38 Cracks at the Corners 10:41 The Test That Misled 11:35 Inquiry Verdict and Open Question Thumbnail photo: Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_Havilland_DH.106_Comet_1XB_‘G-APAS’_(XM823)_(32248608677).jpg SOURCES - Report of the Court of Inquiry into the accidents to Comet G-ALYP and G-ALYY (Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, HMSO, 1955), copy at Hull History Centre: https://catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/catalogue/U-DGR-5 - Hansard, House of Commons, Comet Aircraft Accidents (Report of Inquiry), 16 Feb 1955: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1955/feb/16/comet-aircraft-accidents-report-of - FAA Lessons Learned, de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1: https://www.faa.gov/lessons_learned/transport_airplane/accidents/G-ALYV - Historical RFA, The Crash of BOAC Comet Yoke Peter and RFA Sea Salvor: https://historicalrfa.uk/the-crash-of-boac-comet-yoke-peter-and-rfa-sea-salvor/ - Aerossurance, Common Comet Misconceptions: https://aerossurance.com/safety-management/comet-misconceptions/ - Dr Paul Withey, The Real Story of the Comet (RAeS Loughborough Branch, 2018): https://www.loughborough-raes.org.uk/ewExternalFiles/180116%20Comet.pdf - This Day in Aviation, 10 January 1954: https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/10-january-1954/ - Wikipedia, BOAC Flight 781: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_781 ARCHIVE FOOTAGE British Pathé. PHOTOS - Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseum_in_Rome,_Italy_-_April_2007.jpg - HM Stationery Office 1955 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_G-ALYP_ADF_windows.png MUSIC Music licensed from Epidemic Sound. KEYWORDS de havilland comet, comet jet airliner, boac flight 781, g-alyp, comet crash elba 1954, south african airways flight 201, why the first jet airliner broke apart, first jet airliner, comet metal fatigue, comet square windows, cohen inquiry comet, royal aircraft establishment farnborough, pressurised cabin fatigue, metal fatigue explained, aviation disaster documentary, 1950s aviation history, once upon an engine, failed machines, machines that failed, engineering disasters