15 August 2011

Whisper in Timaru - or is it Mount Isa???

Further to the previous post Hayden Brown captured Quansair BAe 146 ZK-ECO arriving at Timaru this morning...

BAe 146 ZK-ECO arrives at Timaru Airport (masquerading as Mount Isa Airport) on the 15th of August 2011. Photos : Hayden Brown
 

5 comments:

  1. Is this the first ever jet transport aircraft to arrive and land at Timaru?? Does anyone know??

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  2. I was sent the following email last night...

    I don't have a whole lot of info on it, but have been told from an accurate source that the Quansair titles are only for the film charter based out of Timaru. Unsure whether the aircraft will be a prop in the film or the titles are just there while it flies in and out of Timaru.

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  3. Steve,

    I was aware it was only for the filming of the movie. The aircraft came to the right place but the weather did not. It was + 2c but at the real Mt Isa is was +29c and blue sky each day of this week.

    Do you have any light on the question about first transport jet into Timaru? Did Ansett ever divert here??

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  4. I have checked with Bob Kerr in Timaru. He writes...

    The first pure jet commercial airliner to land at Timaru was a Fokker F28 Fellowship PH-MOL on 1 March 1969. It landed at Timaru after a South Island courtesy flight from Wellington, having previously landed at Hokitika then Invercargill and Dunedin before stopping at Timaru to let off Sir Basil Arthur MP and Doug Drake from the Timaru Herald Newspaper. There is a write up on this flight on page 30 of
    Doug Drakes book “Wings over South Canterbury.


    This seems to be the only visit of a jet airliner to Timaru. See also... http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.com/2010/06/viscount-replacement-what-might-have.html

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  5. Steve,
    Thank you for that information. All I can say is that it might be a once in a lifetime event then. I was not born back then,so that made it all worth braving the blizzard.

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