London – Rome – Cairo – Addis Ababa – Nairobi – Johannesburg

On April 8, 1954 at 08:04 PM, London – Rome – Cairo – Addis Ababa – Nairobi – Johannesburg experienced a crash involving De Havilland DH.106 Comet, operated by South African Airways -SAA - Suid Afrikaanse Lugdiens - SAL, with the event recorded near San Lucido Calabria.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

21 people were known to be on board, 21 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 7, passengers on board: 14, passenger fatalities: 14, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Owned by BOAC, the aircraft was operated by South African Airways with a SAA crew under flight SA201. It left Rome-Ciampino Airport at 1932LT (25 minutes delay due to a technical problem) with an ETA at Cairo Airport at 2220LT. While cruising at an estimated altitude of 35,000 feet off the Italian coast, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens at 2004LT and crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 17 km off San Lucido. SAR operations were quickly dispatched but eventually suspended few days later as no trace of the aircraft nor the 21 occupants was found.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-ALYY, MSN 6011, year of manufacture 1952.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 39.3089°, 16.0508°.