Word: cometted
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When the second Comet I airliner in three months crashed off Italy, all England felt the blow to British national pride. But it found consolation in the sleek new Comets II and III hatching in De Havilland Aircraft Co.'s factories. Trumpeted Lord Beaverbrook's Evening
...knees. A motorboat crew threw a grappling hook at what looked like another body. It was a shark and two pilot fish. Five bodies were recovered, three men and two women, and doctors who examined them were struck by the similarity of their injuries to those suffered in the Comet disaster off Elba. There were no significant burn marks, no sign of oxygen lack. The faces showed no sign of fear: death had come too suddenly for that...
...Britain there was consternation, for the Comet was a heady symbol of Britain's postwar comeback. For the second time in 13 weeks, the Comet fleet was grounded. Civil Aviation Minister Lennox-Boyd announced that the Comets' certificate of airworthiness would be withdrawn "pending further detailed investigations." No one in Britain would admit it. but the writing on the wall was plain. Comet I, after flying 55,000 passengers more than 7,000,000 miles, was unlikely to carry passengers again...
...Trouble. What was wrong with the Comet? Last week's crash was identical with that off Elba. Both occurred in the same sudden fashion, in the same area, just as the aircraft were climbing to cruising altitude at 40,000 feet. Some Britons leaped to the theory that there might have been sabotage. But engineers on both sides of the Atlantic more realistically suspected structural defects. U.S. engineers have argued all along that the Comet was put into commercial service prematurely, and questioned details of its design. Chief question: How safe is the British practice of embedding jet engines...
...bigger and faster Comet IIs (due to be put into service later this year), De Havilland intends to install more safety devices. Its long-term hopes are still centered on the Comet III, which is on order for Pan American, but which will almost certainly be redesigned in the light of last week's disaster...