Nice photos!

Maybe a dumb question, but why is Air Asia the official low fare airline for Man U, when Air Asia’s nearest destination to MAN is 1000s of KMs away?

Awww…

It’s always sad to hear about aviation related accidents, and this time it was 4 planes on the same time. Looks like Armenia was hit hard…too bad to loose much of their expensive Western fleet.

Fortunately for ArmAvia and Armenian AW the planes where leased. Since this fire was beyond their control I would imagine the leasing company would have to provide replacement aircraft (and try to get the money from SN Technic and/or SNT’s insurance company).

The belgian air force has already said it will take over the contracts of the SNT personnel for a brief period while SNT gets its act back together. The belgian air force will use the people to modernise their C-130. The article was not quite clear whether this will be an overhaul of one plane, the whole fleet, or something in between.

Perhaps the belgian air force can buy an old rustbucket from the dessert? At the moment they certainly have enough manpower to give it a proper makeover!

Last news, NO SN A330 was involved. There is a SN A330 undergoing maintenance, but it is currently at SR Technics in Zurich.

The planes that are involved are:
* Armenian A320 EK-32001
* ArmAvia A320 EK-32010
* Belgian Air Force C-130 CH-02
* Hellas Jet A320 SX-BVB

The ArmAvia is a confirmed write-off. Seen pictures of it at Dutch TV. Long story short, think of the section where the APU is housed… it was lying on the ground. The rest of the plane could not be seen due to concrete and steel lying on it.

The Belgian Air Force C130 is also confirmed written of. The status of the other two is as yet unknown, but considering the hangar collapsed on them it is likely they will be write-offs as well.

Armenia has had a very very bad week. In 3 days loosing 3 of their Airbusses, thats pretty much half the national fleet! ArmAvia did state that the planes are properly insured so hopefully the mess they are in now is only temporary.

Apparantly the planes where undergoing heavy maintenance, so they where on jacks surrounded with scaffolding. Quickly towing them out was not an option.

Reported in that thread that an A330 of SN was destroyed – will this be immediately replaced, temporarily or permanenty should it be a complete right-off,

Wozza

If that is true it will be a big problem for SN. They are already short on widebodies as it is. Rumours are going around that they are going to get 767s to fill the short term gap, and that was rumoured before the fire!

You’re right. I found some information on a sub-version, the T.VIIII-W/M. Twelve were ordered for the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia). Only nine where delivered though when the war started. The other 3 where completed for the Luftwaffe.

BTW, the planes where not designed as bombers but as torpedo planes. But due to the lack of torpedos when the war started the planes where used as bombers. After the war finished for the Netherlands a few planes where flown over to the UK where they continued the war with RAF 320 (Dutch) sqn. But due to a lack of spares they where replaced by Lockheed Hudsons late 1940.

Some planes had fallen into German hands, and they used them till 1943. The planes still on the production lines (20odd of varying versions including a few intended for Finland) where completed for the Luftwaffe as well.

Herewith ended the history lesson. Class dismissed! 😀