Parliament in 1967. Membership in the International Air Transport Association was attained on 1 January 1968. Independent operations (1968–1999) The Viscount entered revenue service on 2 April 1968 on the Blantyre to Johannesburg route, and later routes included Blantyre-Salisbury, and Salisbury-Mauritius via Blantyre and Nampula. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the fleet being modernised and standardised. Two HS-748s were ordered in May 1969, and the airline ordered two Britten-Norman BN-2A Islanders in July 1969. The HS-748s were delivered in December 1969 and January 1970, and the Islanders were delivered in November 1969 and September 1970, allowing for the sale of the Beech Barons. The airline disposed of the last of the DC-3s in March 1970, and in November 1970 it leased a BAC One-Eleven from Zambia Airways on a two-year term. With the addition of the BAC One-Eleven, Nairobi and Johannesburg were added to the fleet network. In February 1972, the airline leased a Vickers VC-10 from British Caledonian, and it entered service on a route from Blantyre to London. British Caledonian sold the aircraft to Air Malawi in November 1974, and the service to Gatwick Airport in London, via Nairobi, began on 3 December 1974. In 1974, the airline began flights from Blantyre to Manzini in Swaziland with the HS-748, and operated the route until October 1975. By the end of 1975, the airline operated one VC-10, two One-Elevens, two HS-748s and two Islanders, on a route network which included Amsterdam, Beira, Harare, Johannesburg, Lusaka, Manzini, Ndola, Nairobi, Salisbury and Seychelles. In September 1978, the VC-10 was withdrawn from service, because of increasing operational costs which were a burden on the airline's financial stability, and the two Viscounts were sold to Air Zimbabwe in 1979 and 1980. Three Shorts Skyvans and a Beechcraft King Air were purchased in 1980. The airline moved its international flights in 1983 from Blantyre to Lilongwe with the inauguration of Kamuzu International Airport, however its maintenance bases remained at Blantyre. In April 1985, the airline wet leased a Boeing 747SP from South African Airways and painted the aircraft in Air Malawi livery. The aircraft was used only for the trip of President Hastings Banda to London, and remained on the civil aircraft register for only 40 days. On 6 November 1987, a Shorts Skyvan was shot down by Mozambican armed forces killing all 10 people (8 passengers and 2 crew) on board.