PWA's Boeing 727s
We've been looking at Pacific Western Airlines history quite a bit lately. Their Hercules fleet provided us with quite a bit of material and we have discovered some good stuff in our archive copies of their 'Keeping Posted' magazine.
I was surprised to come across a few photos of PWA B-727s. Two of them served in the PWA fleet, both were built as combis with a main deck cargo door. I do not recall ever seeing either of these aircraft as they were used primarily to serve the north.
As per rzjets.net, the first, CF-PXB, was built in 1966 and originally delivered to Southern Air Transport (photo below), believed to have close connections with the CIA. It was acquired by PWA in October 1972. It went to Continental Airlines in 1977 but caught fire after landing in 1980 and was written off.
The second, C-FPXD (photos below), had a much more varied lifecycle. It was built in 1968 and delivered to Trans International Airlines (TIA), registration N1727T.
It was leased to Braniff International in October 1972, returned to TIA in January 1974. Sold to Pacific Western the following month and received its Canadian registration.
Between 1976 and the late 1990s it operated firstly for YYC-based Panarctic Oils, originally leased from PWA, supporting their oil exploration and brief production activities in the north. Then sold to Echo Bay Mines, mainly to support their remote, now closed, Lupin gold mine in what was then NWT, now Nunavut. Later to Royal Aviation and First Air.
It went to Transafrik International of Angola in April 2006. It has now been withdrawn from use but I have not been able to confirm the date or where it is currently stored.
Additional research by Ken Pickford.
See also:
Photo of C-FPXD in 'Echo Bay' livery by Reinhard Zinabold
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