ZS-BWY  Mercury Airways DC-3-455                                     (c/n 6255)

                                     

                                         Mercury air Services was founded in 1947 by Gordon Fillery, and operated as Mercury
                                         Airways.   It was a small non sked airline in the same genre as Pan African Air Charter.   
                                         Mr. Fillery had great dreams of ultimately forming routes to the U.K., the U.S.A. and even
                                         South America.  Despite government ruling banning all scheduled carriers other than South
                                         African Airways, he did, nevertheless, gain a Royal Greek Mail  contract for the carriage of
                                         mail between Athens and Johannesburg.   Some flights were also made to the U.K. and I
                                         saw ZS-BWZ, another of its assets at Croydon in 1947.  Anyway, on 15 May 1948 ZS-
                                         BWY (an ex C-49K, serial 43-2017) was on the Durban-Johannesburg (Palmietfontein)
                                         leg of a flight to London when it crashed into Spitzkop mountain in the Witkoppens Moun-
                                         tains, near Vrede in what was then the Transvaal. . The aircraft, named "City of Durban",
                                         was 8 miles off track in bad weather.    The above image is from the National Archives of
                                         Namibia, and taken, perhaps in what was then South West Africa.  The photo below is via
                                         the Gatwick Airport collection, and shows the Mercurty Airlines logo replaced by 'Skyliner'.
                                         It was still registered to Mercury Airlines and was on a charter in 1958.