December 20 1974
AIR New England, the Boston based local service airline, has placed a multi-million pound order for six Shorts wide-bodied 30-seater aircraft for delivery in 1976.
The company has taken options on a further two for delivery in the Spring of the following year.
The order, the biggest placed so far for the new aircraft, was signed by Air New England’s President, Joseph Whitney, and Shorts General Manager Aircraft, Alex Roberts, in Boston, and is the culmination of long and exhaustive evaluations of the SD3-30 and other competitive types, by the airline.
The order is of particular significance to Shorts in the light of the fact that Air New England is now a certified carrier, the first new one to be granted such status in the USA for 2½ years, and it represents a major endorsement of the aircraft, which Air New England plan to use on its routes between Boston and the off-shore islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
The SD3-30 has many unique features, and will bring a new dimension of comfort and service to commuter travellers.
The contract with Air New England was a big boost to Shorts, which had been established in Belfast since the 1930s.
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Give “Full Truth” – Dr Daly
Most Rev Dr Edward Daly, Bishop of Derry, last night called on the British Government to give the “full truth” about “Bloody Sunday” nearly three years ago when 13 men and youths were shot dead by Paratroopers, and added: “The full truth is that all the victims were completely innocent”.
Relatives of the 13 dead attacked the British Government’s decision to pay a total of £42,000 compensation “in a spirit of goodwill and conciliation” and described the amounts as “an insult”.
Dr Daly – whose picture (he was then a curate) holding up a white handkerchief while he assisted people from the scene of the killings went round the world on TV – said: “I don’t believe human life can be measured in financial terms. To my mind every human life is priceless.
Mr Michael Canavan, SDLP Assembly member for Derry, said: “After the terrible shock of bereavement, the overriding consideration for the relatives of those killed on ‘Bloody Sunday’ was the false accusation that they were either gunmen or bombers.
This latest move means the British Government at least accepts that they were the innocent victims of the British Army and that their names are now cleared”.
The families of the victims of Bloody Sunday continued on their long road to seek justice almost three years after the killings in January 1972.
