BBC Radio 4 'Inside The Bermuda Triangle' - THE ERRORS EXPOSED

Between the 14th and 25th September 2009 the BBC broadcast a series of ten short radio programmes entitled 'Inside the Bermuda Triangle - The Mysteries Solved'. These were presented by the well known investigative journalist Tom Mangold. The programme's producer contacted the authors of 'Fly With the Stars' for information about BSAA, as two of the ten programmes were to cover the disappearance of the BSAA Tudors Star Tiger in 1948 and Star Ariel in 1949.

When the programmes were eventually broadcast in September it soon became apparent that not only was Mr. Mangold keen to jump on the tiresome bandwagon of denouncing BSAA as a dangerous airline (presumably for sensationalist effect), but he had also either chosen not to read the copy of 'Fly With the Stars' we sent him or to ignore it in favour of the "facts" published on Wikipedia.

Additionally, he claims rather optimistically that the mystery of these disappearances "may now have been solved". The programmes contained absolutely no new evidence, and the theories put forward were not new, having all been published as conjecture (for this is all they can be in the absence of concrete evidence) many times before.

Listed below are many of the disappointing inaccuracies in the two 15-minute programmes.

Star Tiger – (Part 2 of 10) broadcast on September 15^th 2009

Tom Mangold stated that “in three years, BSAA suffered eleven serious accidents.”

Astonishingly, given the potential capacity of the BBC for serious and meticulous research, this is a direct quote from that repository of fallacies and inaccuracies, Wikipedia, and is not true! The airline suffered a total of eleven accidents, but by no means all serious. A routine training flight resulting in a ground loop on landing would not be considered a "serious" accident and gives a distorted impression of the safety of the airline to the casual listener.

He also stated that “if you flew with BSAA, you were fifty times more likely to die than if you flew with BOAC”.

Again, a direct quote from Wikipedia. BOAC had thirty-two accidents with 106 fatalities in the same period as BSAA had eleven. The same statistics can be massaged to support whichever opinion you choose, but they should not be stated as facts.

It was said that “the Tudor IV was a converted warplane that was eventually taken out of passenger service because of its poor safety record.”

The Tudor IV was most definitely NOT a conversion of any aircraft, let alone a “warplane”. See comments below when this same error was repeated in the programme about 'Star Ariel'. It was taken out of passenger service as a result of the 'Star Ariel' disappearance, in spite of the total lack of evidence regarding the cause of the loss.

Peter Duffey was introduced as “one of the airline’s top pilots”.

Actually, Peter joined BSAA on August 30^th 1948, seven months AFTER the loss of 'Star Tiger', initially working as an assistant in the Navigation Office. Peter is a friend and was very helpful to us during our many years of research (for which we are most grateful), however while he went on to become a very highly respected pilot and Concorde captain, he was not a senior pilot in BSAA. I think it’s misleading to the listener to refer to him as one of the airline’s top pilots.

Mangold states “the Tudor had some reserve fuel, but the tap [fuel cock] to switch it on was in the coat compartment of the passenger cabin”. Peter Duffey then goes on to say that when he flew on the Tudor he “did not know where those stop cocks were”.

The fuel cocks on the front bulkhead of the passenger cabin were the main fuel cocks for tanks number one and two and would have been open for the whole flight. They were not for “reserve” fuel. Peter Duffey’s statement is curious in that the crew’s before take-off checklist clearly includes an item to check that the fuel cocks for the number one and two tanks are ON prior to engine start.

We were told that the pilot flew the whole route at 2000ft, “probably to keep the plane warmer in the absence of a working heater”.

There is no evidence to suggest this as the reason for the choice of cruising altitude. There IS evidence however to suggest that 2000ft was chosen as a result of the more favourable winds at that altitude on that particular day.

Mangold stated that “other BSAA captains have reported flying at 2000ft because of the persistent heater failures on the Tudor”.

The only BSAA pilots featuring in the programme were Donald Mackintosh and Peter Duffey, neither of whom made that claim. Indeed Peter Duffey did not reach the rank of captain until after leaving BSAA and Donald Mackintosh only became a BSAA captain on September 6^th 1948, i.e. over seven months after 'Star Tiger' was lost. None of the BSAA captains we spoke to told us they flew at 2000ft because of heater problems. I’d be interested to know who these “other BSAA captains” are, unless of course that statement was made simply to justify the earlier suggestion that Brian McMillan flew at 2000ft in 'Star Tiger' because of the heater problems.

Throughout the whole programme, reference was made to the weather (the headwinds) and the navigation difficulties, but not once was it mentioned that 'Star Tiger' was flying the route an hour behind the BSAA Lancastrian 'Star Guide', which landed safely in Bermuda, and which relayed the actual wind situation back to 'Star Tiger' at regular intervals.

Star Ariel – (Part 9 of 10) broadcast on September 24^th 2009

Tom Mangold referred to the 'Star Tiger' programme and said he “came up with new evidence” to explain the loss of the aircraft.

There is nothing new at all about the fuel exhaustion theory which he proposed.

It was stated that the Tudor was derived from the Avro Lincoln bomber.

This is not true. The Tudor used broadly the same wing as the Avro Lincoln but that’s all. It was an entirely new, purpose-built pressurised airliner. The wing of the first Boeing 707 was similar in design to the Boeing B-47 bomber, but I don't believe anyone would claim the Boeing 707 was derived from a bomber.

Later, Mangold refers to the “conversion” of the Tudor from the bomber.

Again, this is nonsense. It was a new design and NOT a conversion.

"Only seven Tudors were delivered to airline customers and only BSAA flew them."

BSAA flew at least ten different Tudors at various times, but they were also used by Airflight/Fairflight, Lome Airways, William Dempster, Aviation Traders, Flight Refuelling and Air Charter.

The safety record of the Tudor was “regarded as patchy”.

By whom? The Ministry grounded it for passenger use after two disappearances from which no evidence was ever found.

After the loss of 'Star Ariel', “the Avros were grounded and never used for civilian passenger flights again”.

Apart from Airflight and William Dempster Ltd., which carried many passengers on Tudors. The thousands of troops carried on Air Charter Tudors would not count of course as these trooping flights were not classified as “civilian” passenger flights.

"BSAA Chief Pilot Gordon Store" (actually Operations Manager) was interviewed “last November”.

Not very easy, as he passed away in 1993. This statement is inexcusable as one of the researchers for the programme contacted us directly via email some months ago to ask us for Gordon Store's contact details. We politely replied, stating that unfortunately he passed away in 1993. Clearly either Mr. Mangold or the researcher decided that Mr. Store's opinion might seem more credible if the listener was mislead into believing that the interview took place "last November".

'Star Ariel' must have “suffered a catastrophe of total suddenness”.

This is purely conjecture because no emergency radio calls were made. So what about the possibility of a total radio or electrical failure, or even some kind of incapacitation of the crew?

It was stated that "the Tudor has two fuel pipes, one of which runs forward to the plane’s nosewheel”.

What nosewheel?! This is laughably poor research and shows a shocking lack of knowledge of the subject. In any case, even if the Avro Tudor IV had a nosewheel (which anyone with even a passing knowledge of aviation would know is nonsense) why on earth would it have a fuel pipe running forward to the nosewheel?

The cabin heater was situated under the floor below the co-pilot’s seat.

It was further back than this, under the flight engineer’s seat on the Tudor IVB or navigator’s seat on the IV.

The Tudor had “an indifferent safety record”.

Again, no evidence was given to back up this claim, but of course the theme of the two programmes was clearly that BSAA and the Avro Tudor aircraft were unsafe, so something had to be said to justify this.

Peter Duffey said “to my knowledge, there was no [fire] warning system in that bay [under the floor near the heater]”.

Unfortunately Peter’s memory is playing tricks because there was most definitely a fire warning system there. The ‘Tudor IV Pilot’s Notes and Operating Instructions’ state clearly that there are two flame switches fitted there which give warning of fire by lighting a red lamp on the navigator’s side panel.

Peter also stated there wasn’t an automatic fire extinguishing system in the Tudor.

Whilst there was no “automatic” extinguisher near the heater, there was a fire extinguisher specifically connected to a spray pipe surrounding the cabin heater installation. If the fire warning mentioned above was illuminated, the extinguisher could be discharged into the heater by the press of a button in the cockpit. I think the programme misleads the listener into believing the fallacy that there was no provision for either fire warning or extinguishing a fire near the cabin heater.

Peter Duffey said “We CAN say there’s evidence of a faulty heater on that aeroplane [Star Ariel]”.

I’ve never seen or heard evidence to that effect, and if it exists, it wasn’t mentioned in the programme.

Eric Newton (a retired accident investigator) repeats the statement “there was no [fire] alarm where the cabin heater was stored.

This is simply not true. There was an alarm, as confirmed above by the official manufacturers Pilot’s Notes.

Mangold said “the little Tudor IVs were a fraction of the size of today’s jumbo jets”.

Maybe so, but they weren’t tiny. Does he realise the span of the Tudor IV was 9ft greater than that of an Airbus 320 and only 4ft less than a Boeing 757?

He sums up by saying that “there is not one shred of evidence of any other possible reason” [for the loss of Star Ariel].

Well, there is not one shred of evidence that it was caused by his theory of a catastrophic fire or explosion either, but that is of course a strong possibility. There are also several other possibilities which are equally plausible, but without a “shred of evidence” for any of them, they are all simply conjecture. Perhaps he should read ‘Fly With the Stars’ if he wants to find out what they are?