King George VI's coronation covers of Burma

The coronation of King George VI was a historic event that took place on May 12, 1937, in Westminster Abbey, London. To commemorate the occasion, philatelists in Burma produced private commemorative covers on the same day.

Mrs. Reardon from Meiktila created several covers, cancelled on May 12, 1937, at Meiktila PO. She used newspaper cut-out portraits of Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth as cachets. Each cover has different cachets and is unique due to the use of cut-outs. I have two examples from my collection, which I have displayed below.

Famous philatelist Naigamwalla also produced several types of covers to commemorate the coronation. The two basic types are displayed below, with two variations for each type that have been documented in Steven Zwillinger's Naigamwalla cachet catalogue.

To date, I have only come across the commemorative covers produced by Mrs. Reardon and Mr. Naigamwalla. It is possible that other types were produced by other philatelists, but I have yet to discover them.

KLM Super Constellation Triton crash at Shannon in 1954

Super Constellation Triton, registered as PH-LKY, operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, was en route from Amsterdam to New York, carrying 46 passengers and a crew of 10. As planned, the aircraft made a refueling stop at Shannon, Ireland on flight number 633, and took off at 02:30, on September 5, 1954. However, just 35-40 seconds after takeoff, the Triton crashed on the mud flats in the Shannon River, approximately 2500m from the end of the runway. Tragically, 25 passengers and 3 crew members lost their lives in the crash.

The plane also carried mail from Burma, which was recovered after the crash and marked with a cachet reading "SALVAGED FROM K.L.M. CRASH AT SHANNON." These cachets are available in two colors: black and violet.

References: 

http://www.cyberbore.com/sansrancune/triton.html
https://aviation-safety.net/photo/6065/Lockheed-L-1049C-Super-Constellation-PH-LKY

New Zealand 2023 FIAP 38th International Stamp Exhibition

New Zealand Philatelic Federation hosted the FIAP exhibition from 4 to 7 May 2023, at Ellerslie Event Centre, Auckland.  The exhibition includes 1121 frames of exhibits from 231 entries.  I participated my "British Burma Postal Stationeries 1857 - 1937" exhibit under Postal stationery class.  The exhibit won Large Vermeil medal award.

Exhibition Logo

First frame of the exhibit

NZ2023 Medal

1931 Air Orient Aircraft crashed at Sandoway, Burma

Air Orient's Fokker plane V.VIIB PH-AEO, a three-engine aircraft, was en route from Saigon to Paris with Claude Beauregard and Ange Bourgeois as pilots, accompanied by Pierre Patard (Engineer) and Olivier Leroux (Radio Navigator). The journey started from Saigon on 5 Jun, included a scheduled overnight stop in Bangkok (5 Jun), Rangoon (6 Jun) before continuing towards Akyab. However, on June 7, tragedy struck as the plane went out of control and crashed into the Sandoway River due to a storm, resulting in the loss of the entire crew. The aircraft sustained irreversible damage and was beyond repair. 

Registered from Nam-Dinh, to Paris

Registered from Moncay

Despite this, the mail was fortunately recovered a few days later and sent to Paris, arrived on 2 Jul, where it received a black stamp bearing the inscription "COURRIER ACCIDENTE LE 7 JUNE 1931."

Crash cachet applied in France

Reference: John Garner, "A Burma Crash Cover", The Burma Fantail, Vol. 13, No. 1, Whole Number 47, pp. 11-12, January 2016.