Fokkers with Props - End of an Era
 

Fokkers with Props have had an over sixty-year relationship with Australia. TAA received it's first Fokker F-27 Friendship (VH-TFB "Abel Tasman") on 16/04/1959.

VH-TFB "Abel Tasman" was lost mysteriously just over a year later on 10/06/1960 when it crashed on approach to Mackay Qld. All on board were lost. This crash lead to the introduction of Flight Data Recorders (Black-Boxes) into Australian commercial aircraft.

The last commercial operator of the Fokker F-50 in Australia, Alliance Airlines is in the process of withdrawing it's Fokker F-50 fleet.

For Fokker fans, this the end of Fokkers as the F-50's are being replaced by F70/100's.

Thankfully, there are several museums with F-27's and HARS has two F-27's which they plan to fly.

My first RPT flight was an Airlines of NSW F-27 mystery flight SYD-WGA-SYD around 1974. The Ansett F-50s were always my choice over the SAABs and Dash8s in the 90s to ABX or WGA. I even flew KLM F-50 NWI-AMS back in the late 90s, disembarking at the AMS "Fiokker Field" as it was (now more "Embraer embarque".

It's sad to see them go, but they have been out of production for almost a quarter fo a century, so it had to happen some time.