Harrison, Barbara Jane

Childhood and Youth

Barbara Jane Harrison was born in Bradford , in the family of Alan and Lena Harrison (Alan Harrison, Lena Harrison). Alan Harrison was a cop. His father - grandfather Jane - while living in the USA, worked as a gardener for Charlie Chaplin . Jane's mother, Lena, was Italian by nationality (although she was born in England ) and, professing Catholicism , raised her children in it. Jane was the second child in the family after her older sister - Susan Elizabeth, who was born in 1941. At first, Jane attended Bradford Greystone School, and later, when the family moved to Scarborough , at Newby County Elementary School. In the summer of 1955, Jane's mother became seriously ill and soon died. Soon, Jane Harrison successfully passed the 11+ exam and entered Scarborough High School . In 1961, after her father, she moved to Doncaster , where until 1962 she studied at the Doncaster Gymnasium ^[2] .

Career

Before becoming a flight attendant , Jane Harrison tried herself in several different areas. From 1962 to 1964, she worked at Martins Bank ^[2] , but this work seemed to her a little boring, and she began to consider other possibilities, in particular - the work of a flight attendant at the airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) ^{[3 ]} . However, at that time she had not yet reached the age of 21 years required by the airline. Requirements for female flight attendant candidates included fluency in at least one foreign language and experience working with children (for example, as a nanny). In order to gain the necessary experience and more fully master the French language , Harrison got a job as a nanny in the family of a Swiss farmer in the canton of Neuchatel . She later worked as a nanny in San Francisco . It was during her life in San Francisco that Jane Harrison applied for a job as a flight attendant at the BOAC. In 1966, she was hired by the company. After training, Jane Harrison became a flight attendant on Boeing 707 aircraft. She settled in Kensington , renting a shared unit with several other flight attendants. In addition, she began to collaborate with Universal Aunts, moonlighting occasionally as a nanny; one of her charges was actor Jason Connery ( born 1963 ) - the son of Sean Connery . During this period, Jane changed several boyfriends, at least one of whom made her a proposal for marriage. Jane declined the offer, saying that they were both too young to start a family ^[3] .

Feat and Doom

On April 8, 1968, Harrison requested her appointment on a 712WH flight from Heathrow to Sydney via Zurich , Tel Aviv , Tehran , Bombay , Singapore and Perth . According to another flight attendant who served that flight, she attributed this to the fact that she was invited to some kind of wedding ceremony in Sydney. There is an opinion that the true reason was the desire to see the pilot of Qantas airline, whom she met three months earlier ^[3] .

At 16:27 British Standard Time (15.27 GMT), 712 flew from Heathrow. Shortly after take-off, a fire of one of the left engines began. After another minute, the engine separated from the plane. The crew managed to land the plane, but the flame continued to spread along the wing, approaching the fuselage ^{[4] [5]} . Emergency evacuation of passengers began ^{[5] [6]} . The tail of the fuselage, where Jane Harrison was performing her duties, was exposed to fire primarily ^[7] . Harrison and second flight attendant Bryan Taylor deployed an emergency inflatable ramp at the service door on the starboard side of the rear of the fuselage. However, when deploying, the gangway twisted, and Taylor, who was responsible for the deployment of this gangway, was forced to go down to bring it into working position. He could not return aboard the plane ^{[6] [8]} .

After the emergency ramp was operational, Harrison helped five passengers leave the burning plane. However, sparks from a fire set fire to the ramp (an investigation of the disaster subsequently revealed their insufficient protection from fire) and it quickly burned down. After that, five more people were able to leave the plane through this exit ^{[8] [6]} : four passengers simply jumped from the plane to the ground, and Harrison pushed another person by force ^[6] .

Already evacuated passengers and other people on the ground saw Harrison about to jump out of the plane herself, but suddenly returned to the burning passenger cabin ^[6] , despite the fact that thick black smoke fell from the door and a flame appeared ^[9] . The next day, the body of Jane Harrison was found among the remains of a burned plane near the aft door along with the bodies of four passengers: Esther Cohen, a disabled woman from Israel, Mary Smith, a widow from Australia, Catherine Shearer, a young Australian teacher, and Jacqueline Cooper is an eight-year-old girl ^{[6] [10] [11]} . In the process of investigating the catastrophe, it was found that the death of all five occurred as a result of " suffocation by inhalation of combustion products " ^[11] . According to one of the flight attendants, the evacuation of the remaining passengers could be hampered by the limited mobility of Esther Cohen, which may have blocked the way for the rest of the passengers (she, in fact, could not move on her own and was quite full). In addition, according to the recollections of one of the passengers, Catherine Shearer was in a state of stupor , apparently caused by fear ^[6] .

At the time of the death of Jane Harrison was 22 years old. She is buried at Fulford Cemetery in York. ^[12]

On August 8, 1969, Queen Elizabeth II , on the proposal of the President of the British Chamber of Commerce Anthony Crosland , posthumously awarded Barbara Jane Harrison the George Cross ^{[9] [13] [14]} . Harrison, thus, became the youngest of the women awarded the British George Cross and the only woman awarded him in peacetime.

Commemorative plaques with the name Barbara Jane Harrison are available at St. Lawrence's Church in the village of Scalby (on the outskirts of Scarborough ), at St. George's Chapel at Heathrow Airport, at Bradford Town Hall and at the Staffordshire National Arboretum.

• Bhanot, Nirja
• Kurchenko, Nadezhda Vladimirovna
• Zharkaya, Tamara Innokentievna

• Susan Ottaway. Fire over Heathrow. The Tragedy of Flight 712. - Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2008 .-- ISBN 978-1-84415-739-6 .
• Report on the Accident to Boeing 707-465 G-ARWE at Heathrow Airport, London on 8th April 1968. - London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1969.