NavList:

Exactly, David. The astrodome blow-out over the North Atlantic off Newfoundland was exactly what I was thinking about when I mentioned an "astrodome in a Lockheed Connie". It's a great story in part because there were two quite different accounts of the event in the press. See below [image] for a version I found a few years ago that sounds like public relations spin... The passengers "hardly knew anything had happened..." Ha! For reference here's the full text of the AP story that you found in that Australian source:

Constellation's Navigator "Just Disappeared"
Boston (AAP)
How the navigator, George Hart, was blown out of the astrodome of a Constellation plane at 19,000ft., over the Atlantic on Monday night, was described by Mr Arthur Holzman, a passenger. Mr Holzman said: "The navigator was standing on a stool with the sextant in his hands and his head in the astrodome, with the pilot, purser, and stewardess standing around. Suddenly there was a terrific noise and a rush of air, and Hart shot up and just disappeared. "Dense vapour formed in the cockpit, and the plane veered sharply. Every loose paper and article aboard was sucked through the hole. The stewardess fell towards the hole as the plane veered, but the purser tackled her and then raced to shut the outer cockpit door to stop the rush of air. He forced part of the smashed inner cockpit into the hole where the astrodome had been. The purser was a hero. The pilot then took the ship down to 7,000ft."

Yeah, that'll get your attention! There's a NavList connection, too. Expert celestial navigator and NavList member Sam Lyness informed us a few years back that his older sister was a flight attendant on that very flight. She was not the one mentioned above, close to the astrodome.

Frank Reed

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