G-AGET Short S-25 Sunderland III

This aircraft was built by Short Bros. Ltd at Rochester, Kent as a Sunderland Mk III - 1942

It was built for the Ministry of Supply under Contract B.78939/40

It was the 3rd aircraft built for BOAC by Short Bros under this contract

Contrary to popular belief the Sunderlands built for BOAC were not converted from existing military aircraft

They were built new as civil aircraft without any armament or military equipment at all

Entered onto the British Aircraft Register as G-AGET (CofR 9376/1) - November 12, 1942

Registered to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), Clifton, Bristol, England

(Bristol was the location of BOAC Headquarters during World War 2)

It was allocated the name 'Sidmouth' but it was not taken up

First flown at Rochester, Kent - January 05, 1943

The aircraft was under the command of John Lankester Parker (Short Bros Senior Test Pilot)

The aircraft was delivered to BOAC at Hythe - January 16, 1943

It was the 3rd Short S-25 Sunderland Mk III delivered to BOAC

It was closely followed by a further 3 examples (G-AGEU - G-AGEW) forming the initial batch of 6 aircraft

Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA #6954) issued - February 05, 1943

Initially the aircraft were painted in a dark green / grey camouflage livery with very large black registration markings

on the rear fuselage, outlined in silver and underlined with a red, white and blue stripe

This clearly identified them as being British civil aircraft

It was ferried from Hythe to Poole for fuel consumption tests and crew training - February 15, 1943

It was ferried from Poole to Hythe for oil-cooler modifications - February 17, 1943

It was ferried from Hythe to Poole for test flying - February 20, 1943

Entered service operating the Poole - Lagos service via West Africa as 'Service Number 19W168' - March 01, 1943

The BOAC Sunderland Mk IIIs were replaced on the West Africa route by land planes - October 1943

This aircraft was redeployed on the England - Karachi service - October 25, 1943

As these aircraft had to pass through the active military zones in North Africa enroute to Karachi, their civil

registrations were temporarily exchanged for 'military roundels and codes' in the 'OQZA' to 'OQZZ' band

This aircraft was allocated the military code 'OQZT'

It is believed that all 'Hythe' aircraft had their Transport Command call signs allocated on September 23, 1943

These codes were quickly applied to the rear fuselage in place of their current civil registration marks

Both aircraft and flight crews were temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of RAF Transport Command but the

individual aircraft were still owned by BOAC and were operated by BOAC employed crews

The callsigns identified each aircraft as follows:

The letter 'Q' identified the aircraft as being operated by BOAC;

The letter 'Z' identified the aircraft as being a Short Sunderland Mk III;

The last letter identified the individual aircraft

With the end of European hostilities the aircraft reverted to civilian status - camouflage and military codes were removed

This aircraft was destroyed on the River Hooghly, Calcutta - February 15, 1946

An explosion on an adjacent barge caused the aircraft to catch fire and subsequently sink at its mooring

The aircraft had been operating the Singapore - Poole sector as 'Service Number 14F4'

One worker on the barge was killed and another 13 people were injured

No passengers or crew were onboard the aircraft when it caught fire

This aircraft had not been converted to 'Hythe' standard at the time of the accident nor had it operated east of Singapore

Cancelled from the British Aircraft Register - February 15, 1946