Captain David Howells, Qantas.
With sadness we advise the passing of Adrian David Howells, a former Sea Fury pilot in the RAN and distinguished Qantas captain. David was one of the last straight deck aviators and a record setting AWI. He passed away in Sydney on Friday 6 March 2026, aged 91.
David was born in Manchester in the UK in January 1935 and emigrated to Australia with his family as a small boy. He joined the navy in 1953 and graduated from No 14 Pilots Course in mid-1954.
He left the navy in 1960 to join Qantas where he served until 1994 having added every jet aircraft in their history to his logbook.
His QF career included the famous “Bahrain Bomber” incident aboard City of Canberra in February 1969, where, as First Officer he rode the 707 in an uncontrolled 20,000′ descent during which the aircraft is alleged by some to have gone supersonic. The account of this and other exploits are contained in David’s book From Sea Furies to Jumbo Jets published in 1996.
On behalf of you all we extend to his family our sincere condolences.
Our thanks to Bill Vallack via John Da Costa for the heads up.
Jeff Dalgliesh and Murray Smythe.
