Asiana A330 Slices Turkish A321 Tail in Istanbul
(Submitted by: Tony Walsh )
An Asiana Airbus A330 slammed its wing into the tail of a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321 at Istanbul Atatürk Airport this Sunday afternoon, (May 13, 2018) completely destroying the tail of the Turkish aircraft (registered TC-JMM). It is unclear as to what exactly happened, but FlightRadar24 data shows that the Asiana A330 bound for Seoul was beginning its taxi when it hit the A321 that was being parked at its gate.
The A321 appeared to be holding awaiting the ramp agents to marshal it to the gate (this is quite common) so was holding further back than normal. Thankfully, there were no injuries reported by either parties, but there was extensive damage to both aircraft.
Boeing 757 – Finding a niche
The Boeing 757 has a unique story in aircraft model development. Basically, it was designed to be a narrow body version of the Boeing 767 and was planned to replace the extremely successful but (by the late 1970’s) inefficient B-727 on domestic routes.
Boeing developed this fleet with the anticipation that there would be a demand for increased capacity on board domestic flights. However, the B-737 became the aircraft of choice for emerging low-cost carriers during the 1980’s. Boeing ceased production of the aircraft in 2004 to focus on the popular B-737 family of aircraft.
The aircraft was a good idea that never really found much success on domestic routes outside of the United States. Although British Airways was one of the launch customers of the fleet in 1983 (56 delivered) and operated the fleet until 2010.
Only a relative handful of the fleet were delivered to Asian airlines with the last built aircraft of the fleet delivered to Shanghai Airlines in November 2005. My own personal experience with flying on a B-757 was a flight from Beijing to Kunming, China on China Southern Airlines in 2008.
The aircraft did find a niche, however, as the choice of several fledgling charter operators, cargo operators and a few very high-profile business executives.
I picked two of the aircraft that have had interesting careers. Registration C-FXOF originally entered service with Canada 3000 in April 1990 and remained in their fleet until the airline ceased operations in 2001.
It was then acquired by ILFC (International Lease Finance Corporation) and went through quite a few re-registrations and paint jobs for the next ten years. Below is a sample life-cycle of a charter service aircraft.
| Delivered | Airline | Registration | Country |
| 30-Apr-1990 | Canada 3000 | C-FXOF | Canada |
| 1-May-2002 | National Airlines | N544LF | USA |
| 1-Sep-2003 | North American Airlines | N753NA | USA |
| 1-Mar-2005 | Rubloff Jet Express | N753NA | USA |
| 7-Aug-2006 | Aerosur | N753NA | Bolivia |
| 19-Mar-2008 | Zoom Airlines | C-GTDX | Canada |
| 13-Dec-2008 | Air Slovakia/Albanian Airlines | OM-ASG | Slovakia |
| 25-Jun-2010 | Mint Airways | EC-LHL | Spain |
| 31-Mar-2010 | PAL Airlines (Lease) | EC-LHL | Canada |
| 23-Sep-2011 | Thomas Cook UK (Lease) | EC-LHL | UK |
| 1-Nov-2011 | Mint Airways (Return off Lease) | EC-LHL | Spain |
| 1-May-2012 | ILFC (Scrapped) | N101LF | USA |
The next aircraft was originally delivered to Sterling Airways of Denmark in 1991 and would later be purchased by Vulcan Northwest Enterprises and become the corporate business jet for Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen.
Since 2011 has been the property of DJT Operations (under registration N757AF) and is (perhaps sarcastically) referred to as Trump Force One.
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References:
Boeing 757 at Wikipedia
C-FXOF at Airfleets .net
N757AF at Airfleets.net
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Here are some photos sent in by Shirlee Schacter taken at Pionairs Central Ontario District's 2017 Annual Christmas Lunch which was once again held at the Lionhead Golf & Conference Centre in Brampton (11th year), on the border of Mississauga, December 6, 2017. This year’s event was filled to capacity with 297 registered Pionairs members and guests.
A special award was also made to Ed Storrie, Treasurer, for his many continuous years of outstanding and unwavering service to Pionairs in a multitude of capacities. The theme, coined by Kay Wollam at the 2016 event, was “IT’S THE PLACE TO BE “ . |
 We have, from the left: Evelyn Frake, Rita Carret, Fran Morgan, Beverley Cooper, Linda Mikus and Suzanne LaFerriere. |
 In this photo from the left is: Kay Woollam, Gale Pontenier, Pamela Sachs, and Cornelia Peto. |
 We have a photo of the crowded prize table. |
 And Valdy Prieditis shouts "and the winner is" after pulling a ticket from the barrel. |
Our cartoon, by Carlin - ORF, is from "Between Ourselves" magazine issue dated May 1955, with the caption "Well, what are you waiting for? Start playing!"
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With hard work and dedication, Heglund's original fleet (consisting of a single Tiger Moth biplane) expanded. By 1999, it had a fleet of thirty aircraft operate a variety of scheduled, chartered and contract services to the major cities of Northern Ontario and many smaller communities. Here we have the timetable issue April 24, 1983. (From the David Zekria collection) (Source: BearskinAirlines.com) |
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Doug Keller sends us a link for a unique tour involving short flights on various Russian aircraft in North Korea. ‘Back in the DPRK’: Grand Aviation Tour 2018 Juche Travel Services is proud to announce that it is ‘Back in the DPRK’ to take part in the Grand Aviation Tour from the 16th – 20th October 2018! Flying on Ilyushin Il-18, Il-62, Il-76, Tupolev Tu-134, Tu-154, Tu-204, Antonov An-24, An-148, Mil-17, and Microlites. Whilst also visiting Pyongyang / Kaesong & DMZ / Mount Myohyang. It is possible to reach the DPRK from a variety of places in China and Russia. However, Beijing is generally the preferred option for tourists due to the larger number of departures, as well as being an international transport hub for those arriving from overseas. |
 Greg and Donna at KVI Travel, Kelowna, Canada have these interline offerings. |
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Roundtrip Seattle Sailings: Oceania Regatta (5*) - 10 nights Oceania Regatta (5*) - 7 nights Celebrity Solstice (5*) - 7 nights Roundtrip Vancouver Sailings: Celebrity Infinity (5*) - 7 nights Do you have any questions or need more info about these and the many other cruises? |
