British South American Airways - Definition and Overview

British South American Airways (BSAA) was a British state-run airline of the 1940s. Originally named British Latin American Air Lines (BLAIR) it was split off from British Overseas Airways Corporation to operate their South Atlantic routes. It commenced transatlantic services in March 1946, with a BSAA plane making the first operational flight from London Heathrow Airport.

The airline operated mostly Avro aircraft: Yorks, Lancastrians and Tudors, and flew to Bermuda, the West Indies and the western coast of South America.

BSAA was planning to introduce de Havilland Comet jet airliners, but in 1949 it was merged back into BOAC.

During its short existence BSAA seems to have suffered more than its fair share of mysterious accidents. The loss without trace of the Tudors Star Tiger and Star Ariel are often quoted to validate the existence of a mystery zone in the Bermuda Triangle, and the loss of the Lancastrian Stardust in the Andes after sending a partly unreadable radio message has been named the Stendec incident. The discovery in 2000 of the wreckage of Stardust appears to indicate a perfectly mundane accident, and there can be no serious doubt that the Tudors were also lost to the natural hazards of aviation of the times.