Fokkernews October 2019 (issue 23)

General news

Avanti Air is looking to replace its current F100 fleet (3 units) with new 100-seaters by 2022. As also Trade Air, Montenegro Airlines, Carpatair and TUS Airways are disposing off their F100 in the next two years, there will be no more Fokkers in commercial service in Europe by 2022. 

TUS Airways plans to switch to a charter-only airline on 31 October 2019 and rebrand as ELA Airways for the summer 2020 season, with larger and newer aircraft. In October, three Fokkers have been put up for sale. The airline will also announce new destinations by the end of 2019. 

Air Antwerp has joined the European Regions Airline Association. 

Panama's Civil Aviation Authority grounded the Air Panama F50 fleet 5 October 2019 for “certain investigations of a regulatory nature". After inspection of the engine maintenance program, one F50 has been cleared to resume operations three days later. The reason for the grounding has not been disclosed, but might be related with the incident of HP-1606PST on 6 September 2019.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10668 400M 85-1608 United States Army. This C-31 Troopship was recently withdrawn from active service with the Golden Knights Parachute Team, where it was in use ever since 1985 as C-31A with the name 'Excalibur". It is now offered for sale at an auction that ends 24 October. The airframe is parked at Pope Army Field, North Carolina, in flyable condition and it comes with many spare parts, tools and ground support equipment. It has flown 17,114.3 hours in 17,831 cycles.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11207 4000 P2-ANR Air Niugini. Noted at Kuala Lumpur 17 October 2019, all white and looking intact, but in a poor condition.
11365 100 VH-FKF Alliance Airlines. Made an air test at Norwich 14 October 2019 after maintenance and returned home to Perth via Sofia, Hurghada, Al Ain, Nagpur, Penang and Surabaya 16-19102019 as SXI1916.
11418 100 N943JM Jet Midwest Group LLC. Cancelled from the US register 5 October 2019. The aircraft was last seen in 2016 at Kansas City in Avianca livery. As far as we know the N-registration was never on the aircraft.
11427 100 5B-DDE TUS Airways. Offered for sale.
11435 100 N945JM Jet Midwest Group LLC. Cancelled from the US register 5 October 2019. The aircraft was last seen in 2016 at Kansas City in Avianca livery. To the best of our knowledge, the aircraft never carried the N-registration.
11436 100 N946JM Jet Midwest Group LLC. Cancelled from the US register 5 October 2019. Like the preceding two, this aircraft was last seen in 2016 in Avianca livery at Kansas City and the N-registration was never on the aircraft. With these three F100 cancelled, there is only a single F100, N339JM (11339), left on the US Civil Register; this one is being parted out at San Antonio.
11459 100 HB-JVE VH-*** Alliance Airlines. Delivery flight from Bratislava via Hughada, Muscat, Nagpur, Penang, Surabaya, Darwin to Brisbane 10-14 October 2019 as SXI1949.
11466 100 HB-JVF VH-VKO Alliance Airlines. Registered 24 September 2019.
11501 100 HB-JVC VH-VKQ Alliance Airlines. Made a local test flight at Bratislava on 25 September 2019 as SXI1948. Delivery flight from Bratislava via Hughada, Muscat, Nagpur, Penang, Surabaya, Darwin, Townsville to Brisbane 27 Septmber to 1 October 2019 as SXI1948. Officially registered 8 October 2019 and first noted at Brisbane 10 October 2019 with VH-registration.
11536 70 5B-DDA TUS Airways. Offered for sale.
11561 70 5B-DDB TUS Airways. Offered for sale.
11569 70 VH-QQW Alliance Airlines. Delivery in the special 100 years colors from Norwich via Sofia, Hurgada, Al Ain, Nagpur, Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya to Perth 23-26 Septmeber 2019 as SXI1915. First commercial service was on 7 October 2019 from Perth to Tropicana and back as QQ2626/27.

Ghana Air Force F27-400M Troopship G521/B (10507) is no longer flying, but is still in service as a ground trainer for the Army Parachute Regiment (Frank Mink; Tamale Air Force Base, 27 June 2018)

 

Also the Air Force of Senegal uses one of their Troopships as a paratrooper trainer at Ouakam Air Base (visible at Google earth at 14.735207, -17.489235). Remarkably, 6W-STB (10565) now has a camouflage livery, whereas as far as we know all Senegalese Troopships were painted in a white and grey livery with a green cheatline. (Airdiass Cissé via Le Nouveau; Dakar-Yoff, September 2019)

 

After serving some 34 years with the Golden Knights, the United States Army Parachute Teams Troopship 58-1607 (10652) has found its final resting place as part of the huge collection of the well-known Pima Air Museum at Davis Monthan Air Force base (Ton Smilde; Pima Air Museum, 20 August 2019)

 

On 11 October 2019 Silverstone Air Service F50 5Y-IZO (20244) experienced a rejected takeoff, presumably due to engine failure at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The aircraft had a runway excursion and skidded some 250 m before striking the perimeter fence and coming to a halt in rough terrain. Thankfully, there were only nine light injuries among the 50 passengers and 5 crew, but the aircraft is probably a write-off (Oliver Okina on Twitter; Nairobi-Wilson, 11 October 2019). See our July issue (Fokkernews 20) for a picture of the aircraft in action.

 

A Fellowship of the Argentinian Air Force, T-50 (11048), that was withdrawn from use and was parked empty on the apron, was lifted by strong gusting winds and came to a rest sitting on its tail (unknown photographer at Información – Portal de noticias; El Palomar, 11 October 2019)

 

The Time Air Historical Society (TAHS) is a group of aviation enthusiasts who used to work for or otherwise have close ties with Time Air, the former Canadian regional carrier. Recently TAHS has bought Canadian Regional F28 C-FTAV (11106), on the condition of successful fundraising for the purchase and transport. The airframe is stored at Saskatoon airport since 2002 and is still in a reasonable condition. TAHS plans to dismantle it and transport it to the TAHS home base at Lethbridge, Alberta, a road trip of some 650 km. There it will be reassembled and brought back into the famous ‘Silver Bullet’ bare metal livery that it had when Time Air acquired the airframe in 1991 from USAir. (Arnold Begeman; Saskatoon, 22 April 2019). A video covering the F28 acquisition is available at https://globalnews.ca/video/5997392/alberta-group-to-restore-2-time-air-planes-to-former-glory.

 

After Portugalia Airlines withdrew their F100 from service in late 2016, CS-TPE (11342) was initially stored at Oporto and later transferred to Saarbrücken for scrapping. For administrative reasons the airframe was reregistered as PH-LNJ first. The picture shows that the parting-out process is now well advanced (Matthias Becker; Saarbrücken, 26 September 2019)

 

KAF308 (11557), the VIP F70 of the Republic of Kenya was flown to Woensdrecht for heavy maintenance, reportedly for the last time in its career with the Kenyan Government (Joey Gastel; Woensdrecht, 14 October 2019)

 

Credits

All photographers, Aviation Safety Network, Aviator.aero, Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives, FAA Registry, FlightAware, Flightradar24, David Garbett, Walter de Groot, Greg Hyde, GSA Auctions, MyAirTrade, Alexander Schouten, Skyliner, Tico Times, Henk Wadman.