Its sad that those aircraft are being prematurely retired. Even Kenya Airways have got rid of their aircraft, lets hope Tap keep flying their A310s long haul for a few years.

They had diverted but TFN was very busy in those days, as it was the only airport and received a lot of charter traffic, including wide-bodies.

The dan-air plabe G_BDAN was inbound from Manchester. Those poor people, all holidaymakers looking forward to a couple of weeks sunshine. The crash seems to have got very little coverage, despite the loss of British life.

I find TFN a very eerie airport and its history makes one shudder!

Yes they can and I quite like them, its just the 321 I dont like. The 757 has given sterling service to the UK charter airlines. I remember flying on MON and AE 757s shortly after their introduction, made a nice change from the staple 732s which were the dominat charter type back then.

It still outperforms the A321 today at airports like LBA and GIB

Whats the use of a free headset when my tummy is rumbling. I like to book holidays with Cosmos and book the Monarch Plus service, worth every penny. I certainly wont fly ZB again until I can be guaranteed a meal!

Yes, it was. They probably had to slam the reverse thrust on to get the thing to stop at LBA. The 757 was a much better performer at LBA and had no problems operating at high weights.

BD had problems operating the A321 ex LBA during the hot summer months when fully loaded. It was well documented at the time.