BOAC Flight 712

BOAC Flight 712 was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via Zurich and Singapore. On Monday 8 April 1968, it suffered an engine failure on takeoff that quickly led to a major fire; the engine detached from the aircraft in flight. After the aircraft had made a successful emergency landing, confusion over checklists and distractions from the presence of a check pilot contributed to the deaths of 5 of the 127 on board. The direct cause of the fire was the failure of a compressor wheel, due to metal fatigue. Flight attendant Barbara Jane Harrison was posthumously awarded the George Cross for heroism during the accident, another crew member received a British Empire Medal, and an air traffic controller was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. As a result of the accident, BOAC changed certain aspects of its emergency procedure checklists.