stunning blow to her proudest pioneer industry – jet civil aviation – as the crash of another Comet airliner was confirmed. Twenty-one persons, including three Americans, were believed to have died when the plane was lost in the Mediterranean. The discovery of at least six bodies and bits of wreckage floating in the sea about south of Naples put a pall on the last hopes for the British Overseas Airways Corporation craft, missing since 6:57 o'clock last night. Tonight the Minister of Transport, A. T. Lennox-Boyd withdrew from all Comets the certificate of airworthiness that the aircraft won on 20 January 1952, 'pending further detailed investigations into the causes of the recent disasters.'''This second, unexplained Comet crash in three months came less than three weeks after the sleek four-jet de Havilland airliner had been restored to commercial service with about 60 safety modifications. They had been grounded for 10 weeks since the previous Comet crash 10 Jan into the Mediterranean near the island of Elba with 35 dead.Early today they were grounded again. Sir Miles Thomas, chairman of the airline, said the new crash was 'a very great tragedy and a major setback for British civil aviation.'}} Bull said he found it difficult to accept the fact that the circumstances surrounding the crash of BOAC flight 781 three months earlier had occurred again with the South African Airways flight. Search and recovery As soon as it heard of the crash, BOAC once again voluntarily grounded all of its Comets as it had done three months earlier after the BOAC Flight 781 disaster. The Italian air-sea rescue services were notified, and searching began at dawn the next day, subsequently involving the Royal Navy carrier and the destroyer . Some time later that day, a report was received from a BEA Ambassador aircraft of an oil patch some east of Naples and bodies and wreckage in the water southeast of Stromboli. The depth of the Mediterranean Sea at the crash site meant that a salvage mission was ruled out as impractical, but if the cause of the BOAC crash was found, it would also explain the SA crash due to the close similarities of the two. Official investigation At the time of the accident, the investigation into the crash of BOAC Flight 781 was still in progress, but suspicion of the cause of the crash had fallen on the possibility of an