<p>HISTORY OF DC3 ZK-AWP
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The plane was built in 1945 in the United States and left for New Zealand the day the Soviet Union seized Berlin. From May that year it became RNZAF Dakota NZ3543 and was assigned to 41 Squadron RNZAF until 1952, during which time its duties included flying servicemen home from the war. It became an NAC passenger plane in 1953 flying domestically, before being used to service Samoa, then a New Zealand colony. In 1973 it became a top-dressing plane, dumping superphosphate across farm land. In 2000 it was sold to Pionair Adventures for charter work around Australia and New Zealand. In June 2002 while attempting to take off in deep snow at Mt Cook the aircraft skidded off the runway and was substantially damaged. In 2004 the then Crown Prince Tupuoto’a of Tonga (later the late King George V) chartered it to set up a domestic airline in the kingdom. His Shoreline company, which owned the airline, was deeply unpopular. When riots broke out in 2006 in Nuku’alofa, Tupuoto’a properties were targeted. Eight rioters died when the Shoreline headquarters were destroyed. Fearing an attack on the DC3, it was locked in a hangar – and spent the next three years in it. Air Chathams then bought it and restored it to air worthiness. In 2010 it began flying scheduled passenger services again for the wholly owned Air Chathams subsidiary, Chathams Pacific. That operation was closed last year when the Chinese Government gave Tonga several aircraft. The aircraft was then flown back to New Zealand in December, and is based in Auckland where it is used commercially as a charter plane and freight transporter.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/88123769@N02">Bernard Spragg. NZ</a> from Christchurch, New Zealand
2014-04-19 15:00
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/30239439316/">DC3 ZK-AWP</a>