Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/British European Airways Flight 548/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by SandyGeorgia 23:24, 22 June 2010.

British European Airways Flight 548

 * Nominator(s): Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)   22:12, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

I am presenting this article as a Featured Article Candidate as I feel that with much work recently carried out it meets the criteria subject to review. It will be my third collaboration for a Featured Article with Red Sunset, although he is inactive on Wikipedia at the moment he has given his blessing to submit the article and I have to thank him again for his work. BEA Flight 548 (often better known as the Staines air disaster) was the worst air accident in Britain prior to Pan Am Flight 103 (The Lockerbie bombing), as a 10 year old I remember the eerie effect that it had on the nation. At school, six years later, a teacher recounted his visit to the accident site and what he witnessed (he was an RAF officer at that time).

As a private pilot myself, I have a natural interest in accident investigation and the subsequent reports, the report from this accident was highly unusual in that it was carried out by a public enquiry and not solely by the AIB (now the Air Accident Investigation Branch) which caused controversy at the time. Recommendations from the report affect how aircrews operate today, the accident is used as an example in Crew Resource Management training. Work on the article has focussed on checking the facts and replacing the unhelpful 'ibid' and 'op cit' reference format. Many of the reference books repeat content of the accident reports, a mixture of both has been used. For balance (against findings of crew error) are published theories from Bartelski and I have added a statement from Julie Key, daughter of the captain. The exact cause of the accident will remain a mystery as no cockpit voice recorder was fitted, recommendations from this accident investigation resulted in them being fitted to airliners in the UK.

Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)   22:12, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Sources comments: The sources themselves look OK, but there are numerous formatting issues as listed below.


 * Ref. 10: The journal is FLIGHT Magazine (with caps); not necessary to include the web address as that is in the link. Check other citations to same source for similar format problems
 * Ref. 11: "AIB" should be spelt out on first mention, so that it is clearly identified.
 * Ref. 13: Again, the web address is unnecessary. Same point applies to several more references (21, 22, 24 etc); give the name of the publishing organisation, not the web address.
 * Ref. 15: Can you clarify what information in this source supports the statement cited to it?
 * (re your comment below) I don't see much value in keeping this. Brianboulton (talk) 22:54, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Ref. 39: "BBC News" should not be in the title. Publisher is BBC. Web address unnecessary. See also 68 and 69.
 * Ref. 54: Where was this cover note published? Can it be accessed?
 * Suggest you add the inf. given below to the citation. Brianboulton (talk) 22:54, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Ref. 63: Again, it is necessary to separate the publisher's name from the title.

Brianboulton (talk) 16:46, 2 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Comment—no dab links, no dead external links. Ucucha 18:11, 2 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you, I believe that all the referencing format corrections have now been applied. Ref 15 merely shows that the CHIRP system exists and is indeed run by the Civil Aviation Authority, I probably left the link there to assist either myself or another editor to create an article on the programme. I can remove that cite if it is harming the article as two other cites support the text in that paragraph. Ref 54 (cover note) is the fifth page of the PDF accident report and was not given a page number by the authorities. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)   21:46, 2 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I have implemented the two recent suggestions, thank you again. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)   09:27, 8 June 2010 (UTC)


 * More referencing issues I'm afraid. I've already mentioned this on the talk page but a lot of references don't use the system. For referencing book sources, sfn could be employed as it allows navigation from ref to source and back. The system is used on the Hawkhurst Branch Line article amongst others. cite book should be used throughout in the bibliography system. Mjroots (talk) 10:19, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Thankyou, the refname system is in use, I did find a few stray ones and hopefully have corrected them all. From WP:CITESHORT: Short citations can be written manually, or by using the sfn or harvnb templates, though note that templates should not be added without consensus to an article that already uses a consistent referencing style. There is no requirement that I am aware of to template format the bibliography section. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)   11:26, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.