Earlier this month we received the kind donation of a British European Airways (BEA) London Airport Operations Log Book from 1954 to 1955 (ref: UWLA/HA/01/06/07/001). The log book contains information about incidents relating to BEA aircraft at what was then known as London Airport, later known as Heathrow. The log book also remarked on anything which might affect the operations of BEA services such as cancellations due to weather conditions or availability of crew. In a week when many parts of the UK are braced for cold and wintry conditions, the log book reports of similar weather on the same date back on 25th February 1955, 65 years ago:

‘1045: Spoke to Capt. Law re airfield state & weather conditions. Snowing hard, low cloud, height not given, 2″ snow on runway, braking action only fair. Snow should cease after midday. In view of this decided to hold BE 544 in town.’

The reports that followed describe a situation of multiple delays and cancellations due to poor weather at other UK airports which resulted in aircraft being out of position and crew shortages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The log book was written up by the then BEA Operations Controllers who were mostly ex-RAF personnel. BEA operated short haul services to domestic locations, Europe and the Middle East. It merged with British Overseas Airways Cooperation (BOAC) in 1971 to form British Airways.

 

UWL Archives is always interested to hear about historical documents and artefacts relating to Heathrow and other subjects taught here at the University. For more information and to view a copy of our Archives policy which includes a guide to the materials we collect, see: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/library/library-services/university-west-london-archive.