Talk:1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash

Request for change of article heading

This article should really be entitled 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 airplane crash because the aircraft involved, a Boeing 707-321C (registration G-BEBP), was actually owned and operated by defunct UK Independent airline Dan-Air Services Ltd. It was also flown by a Dan-Air flight deck crew at the time of the accident. I know that some of the source material shows this as an accident involving an aircraft operated by IAS Cargo. But this is wrong. Check it out in Graham S. Simon's book The Spirit of Dan-Air (GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, UK, 1993). Also, if you carefully read the full accident report, you will understand that the aircraft involved really belonged to Dan-Air.

The reason there is confusion as to the aircraft's actual operator is that the operational arrangement involved three different airlines, i.e. Zambia Airways Corporation, on whose behalf the service was operated, IAS Cargo Airlines, who held the contract to operate the service and Dan-Air, who provided the actual aircraft and flight deck crew as a sub-contractor. In addition, the aircraft wore a hybrid Dan-Air/IAS Cargo livery as is clearly shown in the official photograph of that aircraft prior to the accident.

The background to this arrangement was that Dan-Air had acquired a small number of elderly Boeing 707-320/320C aircraft from Pan Am during the 1970s. Initially, these aircraft - a pair of P&W JT4A-powered -320 series aircraft acquired in 1970 and 1971, respectively - were intended for use on long-haul "affinity group"/ABC charter flights. However, with the advent of Laker's "Skytrain" scheduled low-fare operation and due to the fact that these were old aircraft that could only be sold on at a loss, Dan-Air tried almost everything to operate its 707s profitably, such as the addition of a small number of ex-Pan Am JT3D-powered -320C series aircraft for all-cargo operations, including the aircraft involved in the accident. (At the time Dan-Air used to be organised along so-called "cost centre lines" represented by each aircraft type in its fleet, i.e. the Boeing 707, the Boeing 727, the De Havilland Comet, the BAC 1-11 and the HS 748. Among these, only the 707 was not profitable. [Apart from the aircraft's advanced age, which ruled out a profitable re-sale, the aircraft also had a history of unreliability marked by frequent break-downs during their service career with Dan-Air. This was partly caused by the airline's lack of investment in 707 maintenance infrastructure on a comparable scale to other operators that were operating far larger fleets of the more modern series 320B/C series, including British Airways and British Caledonian, the UK's two main contemporary scheduled operators.]) On the other hand, IAS Cargo Airlines, a small Gatwick-based UK Independent all-cargo airline operating a mixed jet/turboprop fleet of McDonnell Douglas DC-8-50Fs and Bristol Britannia 300Fs, was short of capacity to fulfill the contract Zambia Airways had awarded it. Presumably, it must have found it difficult and probably too costly as well for an airline of its size to procure another DC-8-50F within the given timeframe. That's where Dan-Air, a far bigger and much better resourced airline than IAS Cargo, with its spare 707 capacity came into the picture, leading to the conclusion of a long-term "wet" lease between the former and the latter, whereby IAS leased the aircraft and flight deck crew from Dan-Air, who were also responsible for the aircraft's maintenance (which was performed by Dan-Air's sister company Dan-Air Engineering at Lasham).

Pimpom123 12:42, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

A valid argument, backed up by the fact that the one external reference calls it Dan-Air, and no refs call it IAS. So moved. AKRadecki^Speaketh 01:27, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://faalessons2006.workforceconnect.org/l2/Dan_Air/
  • In 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash on 2011-05-25 04:44:29, 404 Not Found
  • In 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash on 2011-06-06 21:49:59, 404 Not Found

--JeffGBot (talk) 21:50, 6 June 2011 (UTC)