Fokkernews November 2019 (issue 24)

General news

Carpatair is soon taking their first Embraer E195 into service. This aircraft is going to replace one F100, to be withdrawn from use in 2020. 

During its general annual meeting on 6 November 2019, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines has announced to retire three F100 by March 2020 as part of the domestic capacity reduction. 

Further to the news item in our previous edition Air Panama has resumed F50 services from David in Panama to San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Air Niugini plans to develop their technical department in Port Moresby into a facility for heavy maintenance of Fokkers, Dash-8 and other types, also for other airlines in the region. 

On 12 December 2019 the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority has barred seven Silverstone Air Services aircraft from operating, pending further investigations into recent incidents with various of their planes. 

Simultaneously, the operating license of Safe Air Company was suspended by the Kenyan CAA. Safe Air Company is known to currently operate at least three F50 on lease contracts.

 

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10154 300M 5Y-BTD Profile Investments. Derelict since 2007. During the public auction of junk aircraft on 090819 at Nairobi airport, no bids were received for this aircraft. The reserve price was approximately € 4600.
10382 500 I-MLHT Registration cancelled 18 September 2019 as exported. Miniliner was the last known operator, this airline ceased in 2015; the aircraft was stored at Bergamo since. If 'exported' is not an error, we look very much forward to learn who is the new owner or operator of this 50 year old Friendship.
10530 500CRF 5X-FFD Fly540 Uganda Ltd. Also this abandoned Friendship was on auction at Nairobi Wilson airport on 9 August 2019. The reserve price was slightly less than € 4200, but this limit was not met. It will likely be scrapped for creating more parking space at the airport.
10668 400M 85-1608 United States Army. This Troopship, designated C-31 by the US military, was acquired by the Foundation for Flying Dutch Cultural Heritage on the auction. It will soon bew transferred from Pope Air Base to Laurinburg-Maxton airport for preparing it for the transatlantic flight to the Netherlands.
20107 50 RP-C9993 Leascor. Noted 20 October 2019 at Clarck Field, in basic Skywest colors.
20109 50 OO-VLS Air Antwerp. After the public contest, the name 'Pagadder' has been selected for naming this aircraft; it is a Flemish slang word meaning 'small child whose parents are not born in Antwerp'. The airline deemed this name fitting as its parents (Cityjet, KLM and Amapola Flyg) are all foreigners.
20110 50 5Y-SKN Rudufu Air. While departing from Takaba air strip for a flight to Mandera (both in North-eastern Kenya) on 20 October 2019, the F50 experienced a runway excursion and ended up in mud. On board were 30 passengers, there were no casualties. Two days after the incident, the aircraft was still stuck in the mud, awaiting more heavy equipment for pulling it out.
20113 50 RP-C7636 Leascor. Seen 20 October 2019 at Clarck Field, still in basic Skywest colors.
20124 50E SE-KTC 5Y-*** Amapola Flyg. Registration cancelled 16 August 2019, restored 6 September for administative reasons regarding export to Kenya. Cancelled again 20 September 2019.
20125 50E SE-KTD Amapola Flyg. Registration cancelled 16 August 2019, restored 6 September 2019 for paperwork prior to export to Kenya.
20232 50 5Y-JXJ Jubba Airways. The aircraft appears to be on lease from Coral Coast FZE, Sjarjah since 5 October 2019.
20333 50 5Y-CGX Kush Air. The Kenian registration of the Kush Air F50 has become known now (see Fokkernews 20). The aircraft is said to be operated by Safe Air Company.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11287 100 PH-LML Owner not disclosed, cancelled from register 30 October 2019. Ex Portugalia CS-TPC, broken up at Saarbrücken.
11317 100 UP-F1018 Bek Air. Seen at Almaty 10 October 2019 in the new, mostly white Bek Air livery.
11324 100 HB-JVH OE-IDY Alliance Aviation Slovakia. Reregistered 12 September 2019. Remarkably this ex-Helvetic F100 was registered in Austria, whereas the other four got an Australian registration.
11329 100 EP-ATG Iran Aseman Airlines. The Iranian Civil Aviation Authority recently released their final report on the landing gear incident that this aircraft experienced on 22 March 2019. Causes identified are: faulty design of the landing gear system, negligence by technical staff at maintenence and failure to notice the fault during preceding flights.
11342 100 PH-LNJ Undisclosed owner, cancelled from register 30 October 2019. Ex Portugalia CS-TPE, broken up at Saarbrücken.
11459 100 HB-JVE VH-VKN Alliance Airlines. Registered 21 October 2019.
11570 70 PZ-TFB Fly All Ways. Performed the first scheduled flight from Paramaribo via Curacao to Cali (Colombia) 16 October 2019 and back the next day.

On 1 June 2002 SkyTeam GmbH, a subsidiary of ECCS Cargo Charter Service, went out of business. At that time the cargo airline had three Friendships in operation and all three were stored at Karlsruhe Baden-Baden airport and put for sale. D-ACCS (10434) was bought by MNG Airlines as source of spare parts for their own F27 freighter fleet. This picture shows that many parts have been removed and the fuselage is still present, 17 years after being withdrawn from use (Michael Lutz; Baden-Baden, 16 October 2019)

 

Not only the Kenyan registration of Kush Air F50 is now known (5Y-CGX, 20333), but we can also present a picture of this rare aircraft (Ralph Plechinger; unknown location, 2018)

 

Although Qantas Link flies with VH-FNY (11467) for already more than one year in the new ‘Silveroo’ scheme, we still owe you a picture of it (Bernhard Jensch; Perth, 10 October 2019)

 

Recently the very last Virgin Australia Regional Airlines F100 flying in the blue Skywest livery got a repaint and now sports the standard Virgin colors (VH-FNY, 11484). It was baptized ‘Geograph Bay’, after a bay in West-Australia south of Perth (Mitch Coad; Adelaide, 19 October 2019)

 

Alliance Airlines F70 VH-JFB (11521) recently lost the dark blue belly that it still had since its service with Ford Motors and now carries the airline’s standard livery (Bernhard Jensch; Sydney, 3 October 2019)

 

For some months TUS Airways had F70 5B-DDB (11561) withdrawn from use at Larnaca (see Fokkernews 19). On 4 November 2019 the aircraft was flown to Maastricht; it is still not known whether it will be prepared for a new operator or for continued storage (Hans Hoffmann; Maastricht 8 November 2019)

 

Credits

All photographers, Air Britain News, Airliners.net, André Alders, Aviation Herald, Aviator.aero, BBC Africa, CH-Aviation, Citizen TV Kenya, Walter de Groot, Greg Hyde, Luchtvaartnieuws, Piloot en Vliegtuig, Planepictures.net, Henk Wadman.