1953 Canadian Pacific Airlines de Havilland DH.106 Comet accident in Karachi

The 1953 Canadian Pacific Airlines de Havilland DH.106 Comet accident in Karachi occurred on 3 March 1953 on the ferry flight of a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1A from London to Sydney with stopovers in Rome, Beirut, Karachi, Yangon, Jakarta and Darwin. During take-off from Karachi-Mauripur military airfield the aircraft did not lift off, overran the end of the runway, crashed into a riverbed and burned out there. All 11 occupants of the aircraft died in the accident. It was the first accident of a de Havilland Comet with fatalities and the world's first accident of a jet-powered passenger aircraft in which people died. It was also the only fatal accident of this aircraft type that was not attributable to the design flaw due to which a total of 99 people died in three accidents in 1953–54 and the Comet 1 aircraft type was permanently withdrawn from service worldwide.

Accident sequence

When the captain accelerated the aircraft to a speed of over 85 knots during take-off at 03:35 local time, he raised the nose wheel. He should have kept the aircraft's nose down during take-off until the nose wheel rose just above the runway. Instead, he continued to accelerate the aircraft with the nose gear raised, while the main landing gear did not lift off. In this position the drag on the wings increased, which caused the aircraft to accelerate more slowly than required. Towards the end of the runway the pilot lowered the nose, but the remaining runway length was no longer sufficient to reach rotation speed. The aircraft overran the end of the runway, broke through the airport fence, and a wheel of the starboard main landing gear struck the culvert of a surrounding drainage ditch. The Comet skidded and plunged into a dried-up canal. At a speed of more than 138 miles per hour the aircraft struck the twelve-metre-high embankment on the other side of the canal and burned out. All 11 occupants died.