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[Red Eagle]

If you were one of our passengers on the Australian Immigrant flights back in the sixties or a member of such a family then we would be pleased to hear from you. Tell us your stories. Did you record any of the flight numbers and registrations of the aircraft.

British Eagle flew many of these flights from Heathrow (LAP) mainly using Bristol Britannias.

[Red Eagle]

From Eleanor Still (Passenger)
Dear British Eagle,
Back in November, 1965, my husband Kenneth Malkin and I were passengers
on one of the £10 flights as emigrants to Australia. I remember clearly
feeling rather surprised when we walked out onto the tarmac to see a
British Eagle plane as we were all expecting a Qantas flight. It was a
very exciting journey as it turned out though! Our first re-fueling
stop was in Kuwait and when we arrived were informed by the Captain that
the country had undergone a coup and was under military rule. We were
told that armed police/soldiers would come onto the plane to inspect us
and we were all to remain in our seats. This duly happened, and then we
were allowed to leave the plane but had to leave all cameras on board.
We were escorted from the plane into the airport terminal and then
separated, all the men were made to go on one side of the room and women
and children on the other, and no communicating! We were allowed to go
in pairs to the rest rooms to freshen up etc but had a guard outside the
door. Eventually we were allowed to carry on the journey after
re-fueling and I can remember everyone feeling immensely relieved! Our
next stop was Singapore, where they changed to an Australian crew. All
went well until we were nearing Australia when we were told we had run
out of milk for passengers, and just to finish off, the toilet over
flowed causing passengers in seats near them to be moved. However, we
eventually arrived in Perth, Western Australia on 29th November, 1965
all in one piece.
I had a window seat looking out onto the left wing, and by the end of
the journey that wing and I had become good friends - I even took a
photo of it! The name of the plane was "Resolution" and I think
considering all that happened, it was a very appropriate name. Many
thanks to the British crew who handled the Kuwait situation at the time
with calm and aplomb. I cannot remember the Captain's name, but he did
very well.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Still

[Olympic Eagle]

Hi

In 1967, as a Greek speaker working for Olympic at Heathrow, I travelled as an interpreter on an Eagle immigration flight from Athens to Melbourne, carrying 66 Greek girls aged 18-25 who were emigrating to Oz. As I was only 25 myself at the time I thought I was in heaven!

Oh yes, and the Yugolslav interpreter who was supposed to join in Istanbul to assist a group of Yugoslav families on the same flight failed to turn up, so I had to quickly learn how to pronounce Yugolslav names en route!

Itinerary was Athens-Istanbul-Bombay-Singapore-Darwin-Melbourne, with an immediate return on the same aircraft to Singapore - a total trip time of 41 hours! Return to Istanbul was a few days later, on an Eagle trooper from Hong Kong which transited in Singapore.

Aircraft involved were Britannias G-AOVA out and G-AOVL.

Regards

Tony Birth