BOAC Flight 781 was a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) passenger flight from Singapore to London. On 10 January 1954, a de Havilland Comet passenger jet operating the flight suffered an explosive decompression at altitude and crashed, killing all 35 people on board. The aircraft, registered had taken off shortly before from Ciampino Airport in Rome, en route to Heathrow Airport in London, on the final leg of its flight from Singapore. After it exploded, the debris from the explosion fell into the sea near Elba Island, off the Italian coast. G-ALYP was the third Comet built. Its loss marked the second in a series of three fatal accidents involving the Comet in less than twelve months, all caused by structural failures; it followed the crash of BOAC Flight 783 near Calcutta, India, in May 1953, and was followed by the loss of South African Airways Flight 201 in April 1954, which crashed in circumstances similar to BOAC 781 after departing from Ciampino Airport. Crew and passengers Flight 781 was commanded by Captain Alan Gibson DFC, age 31, one of BOAC's youngest pilots. He had joined BOAC in 1946, after flying in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He had considerable flying experience, having logged more than 6,500 flight hours. He had previously been involved in an accident in 1951, in which a Hermes aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing, and he was later praised for his flying conduct during this accident flight. The first officer on Flight 781 was William John Bury, age 33. He had flown a total of approximately 4,900 hours. The engineer officer was Francis Charles Macdonald, age 27, and the radio officer was Luke Patrick McMahon, age 32. They had logged 720 flying hours and close to 3,600 flying hours, respectively. Ten of the twenty-nine passengers were children. Many of them were students of schools in the United Kingdom and had visited their families that had been residing in Asia. Three employees of BOAC and one employee of British European Airways were passengers on the accident segment. Additionally, six passengers were related to BOAC employees. Among the casualties were Chester Wilmot, a prominent Australian journalist and military historian working for the BBC, and Dorothy Beecher Baker, a Hand of the Cause of God for the Baháʼí Faith. Wilmot first joined the flight in Rangoon, and Baker first joined the flight