| Crash site | Near Jagalgori, India |
| Airline | BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) |
| Aircraft | De Havilland DH 106 Comet 1 – G-ALYV – York Victor |
| Route | Singapore – Bangkok – Rangoon – Calcutta – New Delhi – Karachi – Bahrain – Rome – London |
| Crew | 6 – 0 survivors |
| Passengers | 37 – 0 survivors |
The crash
The plane took off from Calcutta/Dum Dum airport at 16:29 bound for Delhi/Palam airport. Shortly afterwards the crew encountered bad weather with thunder-squall. Due to a structural failure the plane caught fire and at 16:35 the plane crashed near the small village Jagalgori 38 km NW of the Dum Dum airport. The rescue workers arrived at the crash site the next morning and found the totally destroyed plane.
The mail
The plane carried mail from the Far East (Hong Kong, Malaya, North Borneo) to Europe. In spite of the severe crash a part of the mail could be recovered. The mail was forwarded with a special handstamp.
So far I have recorded Nordic mail sent to Denmark (2 covers) and Norway (2 covers).
A.
A special 3-line handstamp was applied. So far I have recorded 3 varations of this:
A-a.
Indian handstamp.
Violet.
Size: 65 x 18 mm.
Calcutta.
A-b.
Indian handstamp.
Violet.
Size: 65 x 18 mm.
Galcutta (G instead of C).
A-c.
Indian handstamp.
Violet or blue.
Size: ?
Different font type.
“May” partly in small lettering.
Examples of mail
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Cover postmarked HONG KONG 30 APR 1953 to Copenhagen, Denmark with crash handstamp type A-b. |
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Cover from Penang, Malaysia with partly illegible postmark dated 30 APR 53 as stamps had floated off. The cover is addressed to Oslo, Norway and show the crash handstamp type A. |
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