IOR/R/15/2/514

The file contains correspondence on a number of different, air-related matters, and is not restricted to air accidents suffered by Imperial Airways aircraft. The principal correspondents in the file are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Political Agent in Bahrain, and the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast.

The subjects covered by the file are:

• The emergency landing in March 1933 of an Imperial Airways ‘HANNO’ [Handley Page] aircraft at Jubail, in Ibn Saud’s [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] territory, the subsequent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the emergency landing, and discussion amongst British officials over whether a gift should be given to the Amir of Jubail, whose subjects lent assistance to the aircraft’s pilot (ff 4-46);
• Reports of a missing plane in the Gulf in March 1940 (ff 47-52);
• In July 1940, the theft of copper panels from the wireless station at the aerodrome in Sharjah, leading to the aerodrome’s inability to provide radio bearings to incoming aircraft. Further correspondence documents the investigation into the theft, and the apprehension of the culprits (ff 53-63);
• Through the remainder of the file, correspondence from 1941 to 1943 relating to the development of air facilities in a number of locations, as part of the Aden to Karachi air route. This correspondence includes: extensive arrangements for the temporary charter by the British Overseas Airways Corporation of the Sheikh of Dubai’s launch, to be used at Ras al Hadd; work at Masirah (island) and the sourcing of a launch to enable operations to proceed between the mainland and the island; unrest amongst the workers at Salalah.