The Crash of Bristol Britannia HB-ITB

BY Capt. G A Fernando MBA
RCyAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines
gafplane@sltnet.lk
Life Member Air Line Pilots’ Guild
Former CRM Facilitator, SIA

This has reference to the interesting article by Capt Elmo Jayawardene in The Island on Tuesday 10th November 2020, regarding the Bristol Britannia aircraft crash in Nicosia, Cyprus on 20th April 1967. May I also add a few observations? It was certainly a mystery as to why Capt. St Elmo Muller didn’t divert his Globe Air flight to Beirut, Lebanon which was forecasting good weather. The law says “The pilot-in-command of an aircraft shall have final authority as to the disposition of the aircraft while in command.”

Being an airline Captain (from a different era), putting myself in Capt Muller’s shoes, I think I can shed some light to what may have happened. It was the run up to the ‘Six Day war’ in the Middle East that happened in June 1967. Syria was ‘sabre rattling’ and vociferous accusing other Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon of being ‘cowards’ and not taking on Israel who had got too big for its boots. My ‘research’ shows that on 7th April 1967, Israel’s Mirage aircraft flew into Syrian airspace and shot down seven Syrian MIG 21 aircraft that were ‘scrambled’, overhead Damascus. (The year before, the Israelis had bribed an Iraqi Air Force Pilot with one million US Dollars to defect to Israel with a MIG 21 the mainstay of the Arab Air power, so that they could study its capabilities and weaknesses!). These developments would have been of interest and known by Capt Muller as he had been working with EL AL the national airline of Israel.

Capt Muller was the son of a doctor from Matara, Ceylon. After being demobilised from the Royal Air Force, after WWII, decided to stay back in England and was hired by the Bristol Aircraft Company as a test pilot. When EL AL (meaning ‘To the sky’ or ‘Skywards’) bought Bristol Britannia aircraft which was also known as the ‘Whispering Giant’, for their growing fleet it was natural to have Capt Muller go to Tel Aviv as Chief Pilot as he would have known that aircraft type inside out. The ten years from 1957 to 1967, it is said that it was relatively peaceful in that part of the world. El AL operated Britannia’s from New York and London to Tel Aviv. These aircraft were used for both overt and covert operations (Like the transport of Adolf Eichmann in 1960, from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Tel Aviv)

Meanwhile in Switzerland, after Charter Company, Balair came under the management of Swissair, in 1957, the void created was filled by many other foreign operators, were using the city of Basel as a charter ‘gateway’ (Perhaps the word ‘Hub’ was yet to come!) Therefore there was a need for a second Swiss Charter Company to operate out of Basle and that was how Globe Air was established in 1957. By the sixties it was very successful and operated to 20 European destinations by using short haul Ambassador and Handley Page Herald aircraft. By the mid-sixties they had their eyes on long haul charters and therefore acquired two Britannia aircraft from EL AL in April 1964 (HB-ITB) and March 1965 (HB-ITC) as an interim measure till they acquired De Havilland Comet 4 jet aircraft. Thus facilitating long haul flights to commence to destinations like Colombo, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo in Mozambique), San Juan (in Puerto Rico), Montego Bay and beyond.

Some RCyAF Air Traffic Control Officers at Colombo Airport Katunayake like Wing Commander Wimal Fernando remember Capt Muller heading off to Matara to visit his father, on occasions when there were long layovers on his roster patterns.

Coming back to this particular flight of Britannia HB-ITB, with all the ‘hype’ created in the Arab countries like Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon after the Israeli attack on Syria, these airports were not the ideal airports to divert to as there would have been disruptions and delays caused by hostile elements. The Globe Air Flight was a multi-stop flight and couldn’t afford to have delays. The best option would have been to have avoided all the potentially violent Arab airports and divert to Nicosia, Cyprus which gained independence from the UK as recent as in 1960. Capt Muller had a lot on his plate and would have been under tremendous stress. They were tired, his crew was inexperienced, working on the wrong side of the biological clock, it was a dark night with intermittent rain over unfamiliar terrain, a non-precision approach with a low level bad weather circuit, low on fuel and he had to continuously evaluate the risks for the flight. Today’s experts in human factors say that the Captain (Commander) of a flight should know himself, know his crew, know his mission, know his aircraft and above all things evaluate the risks.

The flight was a victim of what is known today as Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT) where a perfectly serviceable aircraft flies into high terrain. This type of accident is considered by Air Safety Experts as the greatest killer in modern times. By installing a mandatory device known as a Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) and practicing regularly the response to the warnings in simulators, a large percentage of such accidents are now avoided. There is now even an ‘Enhanced’ GPWS which provide the pilots with a colour coded Global Positioning System (GPS) map display of the surrounding high ground available to the pilots, to make an informed decision to avoid terrain.

After this accident, the international press gave wide publicity to the fact that at the time of the crash, the crew had exceeded legal flight duty time limitations and that the First Officer didn’t have many hours on Britannia aircraft. As a result the Insurance Company refused to pay. Globe Air had to foot the bill for the insurance commitment, as a result they went financially ‘belly up’. Eventually, at the end of 1967, the Swiss regulator withdrew the Globe Air, Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and were forced to cease operations.

In the seventies yours truly was in the Committee of the Air Ceylon Pilots’ Guild and during negotiations with the members of the Board of Directors in Air Ceylon and Air Lanka, who looked only at the ‘bottom line’ and were there as beneficiaries of political ‘pay –offs’, who didn’t have a clue on how Airline Administrations should operate, ‘The story’ of Globe Air, the airline which held much promise and the repercussions of their Managements’ irresponsible behaviour,(pinching pennies and pushing pilots) were narrated frequently to highlight the serious ramifications. Some of them then listened.

Years later the same accident was discussed in detail in Singapore Airline Crew Resource Management (CRM) sessions for pilots. The attendees were pilots from over sixty different countries, employed by SIA. It was a ‘text book case’ full of if’s and but’s, but many participants didn’t know the Sri Lankan connection. The purpose was to analyse the cause behind the cause.

The Airline pilots say that for improvements in air safety to take place, ‘blood must be spilt.’ The need to develop an approaching terrain warning device was highlighted by this accident, making flying safer for future generations.

Therefore, considering all factors, I believe that Capt Muller, his Crew and 126 passengers did not die in vain, as improvements to Air Safety were made as a result.