Spantax

Gran Canaria Airport

Spantax S. A. was a Spanish charter airline based in Madrid and based on the Gran Canaria Airport. She was 1965-1982 embroiled in a series of serious accidents and significant margins, for which she designed in Germany a bad reputation.

History

Early years

The later Spantax was founded as a Spanish Air Taxi Lineas Aereas SA on October 6, 1959 by Rodolfo Bay Wright and Maria Saez Estades, former employees of Iberia, in Tenerife. Originally, the company mainly drill teams and transported to oil fields in El Aaiun in the former Spanish Sahara.

In 1963 the name was Spantax S. A. changed and at first intra-European in 1972 eventually also included the transatlantic charter flights. Spantax finally flew destinations in 21 countries, including the USA and Canada, South America, Asia and Scandinavia. 1984 were transported 1.6 million passengers.

At times, the acquisition of a Concorde was considered, with which passengers from Scandinavia should have been promoted. The machine should it go round the British Isles north and drive during the flight west of the coast of Ireland in supersonic speed the Canary Islands.

Development in the 1980s

A major setback experienced Spantax, as autumn 1983, the three package tour company TUI, ITS and ONLY announced not to renew the contracts with Spantax, as a result of the accident and breakdown series (see below) German tourists ' confidence in the safety of airline had lost. Only Clipper air travel in Stuttgart took after the last German tour operators Spantax flights to Spain nor to the program on. From this extensive loss of one of its most important markets, the company was never able to recover.

In 1986, Rodolfo Bay Wright down his chair and nearly bankrupt company was incorporated in the state holding Patrimonio Nacional. In June, it came by aircrew and ground crew strikes over two weekends, so the company was forced to hire foreign machines in order to meet their transportation obligations. The aim of the strikes were on the one hand wage increases, on the other hand, guarantees for the permanent preservation of jobs, since the employees had to worry about being laid off at a takeover by another company.

In April 1987, the debt of 50 million dollars company was completely sold to the Aviation Finance Group in Luxembourg. This invested about 40 million U.S. dollars on the purchase of new machines and a significant improvement of the service to supplement the image of Spantax.

During the negotiations with China Airlines for the purchase of two Boeing 767 failed negotiations on the financing, so the company had to file for bankruptcy on March 29, 1988. A large number of 815 employees temporarily blocked then the airport of Palma de Mallorca to draw attention to their situation.

Fleet

Spantax operation temporarily a remarkable variety of different types of aircraft, including the largest with 14 species of European fleet of Convair Coronado:

  • EC- ASJ Beechcraft C- 45H 1962-1973
  • EC- DTR Boeing 737- 2K5 1983-1988
  • EC- DUB Boeing 737- 2K5 1984-1988
  • EC- DUL Boeing 737- 2T4 1984-1985
  • EC- DVE Boeing 737-204 1984-1985
  • Boeing 737-204 EC- DXK 1985-1986
  • EC- DYZ Boeing 737- 2E3 1986-1988
  • EC- DZH Boeing 737- 2H4 1986-1986
  • EC- EEG Boeing 737-229 1987-1988
  • EC- BJC Convair CV- 990A - 1967-1987 30-5 ( collided on 5 March 1973 Nantes with an Iberia DC-9, was damaged land in Cognac)
  • EC- BJD Convair CV- 990A - 1967-1983 30-5
  • EC- BNM Convair CV- 990A - 1968-1970 30-5 ( accident in Stockholm on January 5, 1970)
  • EC- BQA Convair CV- 990A - 1970-1985 30-5
  • EC- BQQ Convair CV- 990A - 1969-1986 30-5
  • EC- BTE Convair CV- 990A - 1970-1981 30-5
  • EC- BXI Convair CV- 990A - 1971-1981 30-5
  • EC- BZO Convair CV- 990A - 30-5 from 1972 to 1988 (Available today at the airport of Palma de Mallorca)
  • EC- BZP Convair CV- 990A - 1972-1984 30-5
  • EC- BZR Convair CV- 990A - 1972-1972 30-5 ( Tenerife accident on December 3, 1972 )
  • EC- CNF Convair CV- 990A - 1975-1982 30-6
  • EC- CNG Convair CV- 990A - 1975-1982 30-6 ( be landed without landing gear on 4 April 1978 in Cologne; put back into service August 3, 1978 )
  • EC- CNH Convair CV- 990A - 1975-1983 30-6
  • EC- CNJ Convair CV- 990A - 1975-1981 30-6
  • EC- BPE DeHavilland DHC- 6-200 1968-1978
  • EC- CAO DeHavilland DHC- 6-300 1972-1977
  • EC- CJI DeHavilland DHC- 6-300 1974-1981
  • EC- DCB DeHavilland DHC- 7-102 1978-1981
  • EC- ACX Douglas C- 47A -DL 1963-1966 ( Tenerife accident on September 16, 1966 )
  • EC- ANV Douglas C -47B -DK 1966-1966
  • EC- AQB Douglas C- 47A -DK 1960-1968
  • EC- AQE Douglas C -47B -DK 1960-1972 ( crashed at Madrid September 30, 1972 )
  • EC- AQF Douglas C -47B -DK 1960-1976
  • EC- ARZ Douglas C- 47A -DK 1962-1965 ( Tenerife accident on December 7, 1965 )
  • EC- ASP Douglas C -47B -DK 1964-1968
  • EC- ATT Douglas DC -3A -191 1963-1971
  • EC- AXS Douglas DC -3A -197 1964-1977
  • EC- BEC Douglas DC- 3D 1966-1971
  • EC- BED Douglas DC- 3D 1966-1971
  • EC- BEG Douglas DC -3C 1966-1970
  • EC- ACD Douglas DC- 4-1009 1962-1973
  • EC- ACE Douglas DC- 4-1009 1962-1973
  • EC- ACF Douglas DC- 4-1009 1962-1972
  • EC- APQ Douglas C -54A -DO 1966-1974
  • EC- AUY Douglas C- 54D - DC 1963-1971
  • EC- AXM Douglas DC- 4-1009 1964-1964
  • EC- BMI Douglas C- 54 1967-1970
  • EC- AZX Douglas DC- 6 1965-1979
  • EC- BBK Douglas DC -6B ST 1965-1975
  • EC- ATQ Douglas DC -7C from 1964 to 1970 ( crashed at Madrid October 2, 1970 )
  • EC- ATR Douglas DC -7C 1963-1977
  • EC- BBT Douglas DC -7C 1965-1976 ( stands today at the airfield Berriel El Gran Canaria )
  • EC- BDL Douglas DC -7C 1966-1979
  • EC- BDM Douglas DC -7C 1966-1974
  • EC- BNG Douglas DC- 7CF 1967-1969
  • EC- BSP Douglas DC- 7CF 1969-1977
  • EC- BSQ Douglas DC- 7CF 1970-1979
  • EC- CCF Douglas DC-8- 61CF 1973-1984
  • EC- CCG Douglas DC-8- 61CF 1973-1984
  • EC- CZE Douglas DC- 8-61 1977-1988
  • EC- DVB Douglas DC- 8-61 1984-1988
  • EC- DVC Douglas DC- 8-61 1984-1988
  • EC- EAM Douglas DC- 8-61 1986-1987
  • EC- CGY Douglas DC- 9-14 1974-1983
  • EC- CGZ Douglas DC- 9-14 1974-1984
  • EC- DIR Douglas DC- 9-14 1980-1984
  • EC- DQP Douglas DC- 9-32 1982-1983
  • EC- dqq Douglas DC- 9-32 1982-1983
  • EC- DSV Douglas DC- 9-32 1983-1984
  • EC- DTI Douglas DC- 9-32 1983-1983
  • EC -DEG Douglas DC-10- 30CF 1978-1982 ( accident in Málaga on September 14, 1982, see: Spantax Flight 995 )
  • EC- DSF Douglas DC-10- 30CF 1982-1984
  • EC- DUG Douglas DC- 10-30 1984-1986
  • EC- EAZ Douglas DC- 10-10 1986-1987
  • N52UA Douglas DC -10-10 1988-1988
  • N917JW Douglas DC -10-10 1987-1989
  • EC- EFJ McDonnell Douglas MD- 83 1987-1988
  • EC- EFK McDonnell Douglas MD- 83 1987-1988
  • EC- BFV Fokker F- 27-100 1967-1972
  • EC- BNJ Fokker F- 27-100 1967-1976
  • EC- BPJ Fokker F- 27-100 1968-1972
  • EC- BPK Fokker F- 27-100 1968-1972
  • EC- BRN Fokker F- 27-100 1969-1972
  • PK- FDR Fokker F- 27-100 1969-1969

Incidents

The history of Spantax was overshadowed by a number of serious accidents and major incidents:

  • On December 7, 1965 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife bounced a Douglas DC -3 of the Spantax after the launch due to unknown cause against a mountain. All 32 occupants died.
  • On May 31, 1967 demonstration flight, inter alia, with journalists and representatives of travel companies from Palma de Mallorca to Hamburg took place. In total there were 128 passengers and nine crew members on board. To prove the reliability of its society, flew the boss himself the Coronado. Approaching Hamburg but he mistook the time, only 1360 meters long work slopes of the Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH (now Airbus) in Hamburg- Finkenwerder with the 3000 meter long runway 05 of the airport Hamburg- Fuhlsbüttel, for him permission to land had been granted already. He came just a few meters before the end of the much too short for the jet runway to a stop. The passengers came up with a fright and were driven by bus to another airport while the then largely freed of ballast and kerosene Coronado empty direction Fuhlsbiittel took off and there - much later landed - to facilitate the Tower crew, who first believed in a crash. This incident brought her among airline pilots nicknamed " Finkenwerder airlines " because she has ever served as a single line company Finkenwerder.
  • On January 5, 1970, the engine failure was noticed when starting a charter flight from Stockholm to Palma de Mallorca. The launch was canceled and the machine, the Convair CV 990 rolled back to the terminal. After that, the machine should be flown with only three engines without passengers to Zurich for repairs. During startup, the machine came in bad weather and strong winds out of control, brushed some treetops and eventually crash. All five members of the crew died.
  • On 3 December 1972, the most severe mishap a Spantax machine occurred. When scheduled flight from Los Rodeos to Munich -Riem the Convair CV 990 fell during startup with extremely poor visibility out of control, overturned and finally crashed to the ground. All 148 passengers (mostly German tourists ) and 7 crew members died. This was the worst accident of a 990 CV at all.
  • On March 5, 1973, was probably due to a navigational error on the part of Spantax pilots and problems in the radio traffic to a collision of a Convair CV 990 Spantax with a Douglas DC- 9 of Iberia in the airspace of Nantes. While the Spantax machine could make an emergency landing with a badly damaged left wing and all occupants survived, all 68 occupants of the Iberia plane were killed. The pilots of both aircraft flew without the support of the striking French air traffic on that day.
  • On April 4, 1978 at the Cologne-Bonn airport a further serious incident occurred: As a Spantax machine with 139 passengers and seven crew members began to land, had - as it turned out later - forget the pilots, extend the landing gear, and the machine slipped "on the belly" on the runway, the right wing caught fire. Only two randomly located in the immediate vicinity ready to use fire trucks prevented likely that there were casualties in this accident.
  • On September 13, 1982, there came during the launch of Spantax Flight 995, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 leased, in Málaga on a flight to New York to strong vibrations caused by bursting of the right tire at the front chassis. The vibrations irritate the pilots, who then much too late momentum for a take-off. The machine came upon the end of the airstrip addition, crossed a highway and came to the embankment of a railway line to a halt. They broke into three parts, and finally burned out. 50 of the 394 passengers were killed.
IATA-Code International Civil Aviation Organization airport code Insolvency Cognac, France De Havilland Running gear
741185
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