I was very interested to read the article by the late Bruce Hales-Dutton about British Eagle in your June 2023 edition. From 1958-621 was resident in Malta, with my family. Living in Paola on the flight path into Luqa, I saw quite a bit of the comings and goings of numerous fledgling airlines as well as various military visitors. We originally flew to Malta courtesy of British United Airways, who were then under contract to the government, and we subsequently returned to the UK at a time when Cunard Eagle held a contract for trooping and what were termed 'indulgence' flights. It was not uncommon to see the Cunard Eagle DC-6s coming in to land with one engine stopped. We speculated at the time whether this was a fuel-saving measure or down to a technical issue. It wasn't something I recall seeing with BUA's DC-4 and DC-6s, nor DC-4s of Trek Lugdiens and Continentale, Overseas' Argus, Air Safari's Hermes or Dan-Air's Yorks during that period. When we finally returned to the UK in 1962, on a Cunard Eagle DC-6, we witnessed this at first hand about three-quarters of the way into the flight. The somewhat scruffy image shows the starboard outer feathered, much to the chagrin of my mother who was fairly nervous about flying anyway. My response when she asked what would happen if we lost another one, namely, "We will probably be up here all day" didn't really help matters. Interestingly there was no tannoy broadcast from the cockpit. I suspect this could have been an engine limited life-related measure. Are any former company employees able to shed any light on operational practice at that time?
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