Fokkernews May 2019 (issue 18)

General news

Further to the announcement in Fokkernews 17, Air Niugini had resumed Fokker flights to Kieta, after the landing equipment was repaired.

From 9 April 2019 Iran Aseman Airlines operates a new F100 route from Chah Bahar to Muscat, Oman, once per week nonstop.

Apart from the two ex-Skywest F50's that Leading Edge Aviation Services (Leascor) has already taken over, five more Australian F50's will follow this year. This should mean that Alliance Airlines is soon withdrawing the type from active service.

Montenegro Airlines plan to retire its last two F100 in 2020 and replace them with Embraers.

An unknown F27 Troopship has been converted into a minicamping in Bogota, central Colombia and is available for rent. It is drab green with the United Nations logo painted on the fuselage. Any help with its identity is highly appreciated.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10652 400M (85-1607) US Army. After being phased out by the Golden Knights parachute team, the Pima Air & Space Museum acquired the Troopship for future display.
20113 50 RP-C7636 Leascor. Made test flight at Singapore-Seletar 12 April 2019 and was transferred from Seletar via Kuching to Clark 14-15 April 2019, still in basic Skywest c/s.
20231 50 5H-TGF Air Tanzania. The Tanzania Government Flight transferred its single F50 to Air Tanzania for increasing its capacity; the aircraft was noted 280319 in full Air Tanzania livery with the name "Umoja hapa kazi tu" on the nose (Swahili for "unity works just here").

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11113 3000R A-2802 Indonesian Air Force. Unveiled as a gate guard at Halim, Jakarta, painted as A-2803.
11137 3000 5H-CCM Tanzania Government Flight. Intended to be soon transferred to Air Tanzania.
11317 100 CS-TPD HP-1900PST Air Panama. Delivered 9 April 2019 from Mexico City to Panama City Albrook in full Air Panama livery with HP-registration.
11329 100 EP-ATG Iran Aseman Airlines. On 22 March 2019 during flight EP-840 from Tehran with 81 passengers and 8 crew, the flight crew repeatedly could not extend the right landing gear before landing at Ilaan and after a go-around the left gear could not be retracted, so the crew returned to Tehran. In the approach the right gear deployed normally and the aircraft made a safe landing. Two small rings in the hydraulic system were found to be the culprits.
11369 100 YR-FKB Carpatair. Returned from Woensdrecht to Arad 9 April as KRP5200 after maintenence since 1 February 2019.
11470 100 UP-F1009 Air Djibouti. Returned to Bek Air from Djibouti via Muscat to Almaty 19 April 2019 after lease ended.

One of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Troopships that is stored at Eindhoven Air Force Base was trucked to a nearby location in Oirschot for a large regional aviation disaster training. The identity of the aircraft is not completely sure, most likely it is former C-9 (10159). (Rob Dragt; Eindhoven, 11 April  2019)

 

Leascor is in the process of getting its fifth F50 ready for service. RP-C7636 (20113) had its Philippine registration applied, but was still in the livery of previous operator Skywest (Fred Crampton; Seletar, 23 March 2019). In the meantime it was flown to its homebase Clark.

 

Initially Amapola Flyg SE-MFU (20145) was seen in service in all-white, but it was soon repainted and is now flying in the livery of Braathens Regional Airlines (Henrik Nilsson; Stockholm-Bromma, 28 March 2019)

 

The former Tanzanian Government VIP F50 5H-TGF (20231) was transferred to Air Tanzania, fitted with a standard airline interior and repainted. Unfortunately not the best picture, but it shows all what is of interest (EastAfrica Television on Youtube; Dar es Salaam, 2 April 2019)

 

Alliance Airlines sent one of their F100 all the way from Australia to KLM UK Engineering at Norwich for maintenance. VH-XWO (11280) arrived on 25 August 2018 and returned on 13 October 2018. Before delivery it made a local test flight (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 9 October 2018)

 

Currently Alliance Airlines have three F70 at Norwich awaiting maintenance before they will be ferried to down under. These three already carry an Australian registration, but still have the basic livery of their former operator Austrian. Two were taken on picture: VH-NUO (11529, ex OE-LFI) and VH-NUU (11532, ex OE-LFJ). (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 31 and 8 March 2019, respectively)

 

Credits

All photographers, Air-Britain, Airlineroute, Aviator.aero, CH-Aviation, Fred Crampton, Merv Crowe, Dirk Grothe, Fred Niven, Scramble, Skyliner, Jacques Vooren, Henk Wadman.