Came across what is the 4th known photo (2nd landing photo) of the dual titled Air Jamaica/BWIA 727-078 (1966-68 [9Y-TCO]). Though it appears similar to the previously posted landing photo (Jetphotos.net), it is definitely not the same. There was briefly a 2nd dual titled 727, when BWIA leased a Pacific Airlines 727-193 in 1968 but this was just a 'sticker' A/C. The top photo was found in an interesting online bio of Darrell Lou-Hing (Angelfire.com), a retired BWIA pilot. He actually didn't fly on the 727's but was transferred from LIAT (lsd. Viscount) to become a FE on the 707-227. (AussieAirliners.net)
He mentions that the -227's from BI came first but it was actually this lsd.-138B that a was in use from December '68-April 1969 that was BWIA's 1st 707 (this A/C was returned to Qantas, then purchased by BWIA and returned to the airline in July '69 in the new colors. Apparently, BWIA did NOT have a great reputation with passengers in the 1960's at least, as the Captain mentions that the airline was known as (B)etter (W)alk (I)f (A)ble!.....John

Any more? These are funny!




John

Rodger, you should be working a gig at an airport lounge!



John

George, last night I was recalling there was an Allegheny one but couldn't remember it....Keep 'em coming!!!






John

WOW! B.W.I.A. must have been pretty bad to get (4)!!!




John

Greetings!

In the late 1970's I flew cargo for them in leased DC-6's. I can confirm that passengers HATED them. I never met a single passenger at Piarco Airport who had any positive remarks about their service or reliability.

We hauled a lot of loads consisting of only hatching eggs from Miami. We would arrive, clear immigration/customs (sometimes taking over an hour to do so), get the airplane fueled for our return trip to Miami, taxi across to the other side of the field to the cargo area and open the cargo doors for them to unload. We would then walk past the previous loads of rotting eggs to the cargo offices and exit, sometimes being checked yet again by customs, and take our taxi to the Pan Am Guesthouse. We would then wait to be called and advised that the airplane was unloaded and we were ready to go. This might take more than a week..... When we arrived at the aircraft we would see our load of rotting hatching eggs sitting in the sun.

I was told that the importer of the hatching eggs was quite happy with BeeWee because he never got his eggs, so he didn't have to handle them at all, and he got rich on his insurance claims for the losses. I suspect that he had a cargo manager or two on his payroll and they all got rich while helping BWIA go under. This is typical third world graft and corruption.

Trinidad and Tobago is the only country I've ever visited that has customs and immigration procedures worse than ours here in the USA, but there are good reasons why ours are so anally bad. Theirs at Piarco were bad because they had assinine procedures which were never the same from one day to the next, and they are #$%holes about it.

BWIA was founded in 1940 by a former New Zealander named Lowell Yerex who also founded TACA earlier. He regretted being talked into starting BWIA according to his biography.

Regards,
Jeff Jarvis

Back in the late 1990's I treated my wife to her first trip to Europe. I was working for Evergreen Intl. in sales management at the time. We were going to attend a bi-yearly cargo conference in Luxembourg, and do some sight seeing afterwards.

Everything was well planned in advance, trip passes on TWA, PDX-JFK-PDX. I was able obtain free passes on SABENA JFK_BRU_JFK from their cargo sales rep that I knew in New York. I checked seat availability for our flights each and every day prior to leaving. We picked travel dates that showed the least amount of bookings on the flights.

Our flight to JFK on TWA was perfect plenty of space for us. Upon arrival at JFK we then made out way to the SABENA checking desk. Upon arrival there was masses of people milling about. I made my way to the front of the line and discovered that the prior evenings flight had been canceled, and this evenings flight was oversold due to that fact. We stood by anyway, but did not get on. I scrambled about calling other carriers to see if we could get to any European city. Virgin Atlantic offered us free passes for a JFK-LHR flight, however we had little time to make it. We chose to stay over for the next days SABENA flight. Note, SABENA that evening told us the next flight was wide open for seats.

The next evening we checked in early at SABENA and were told the flight was booked full, they stated that they had a tour group that was leaving New York a day earlier than scheduled. We again we had to stand by for the flight. This time we got the lucky and got two seats in Business Class. The flight, and the balance of our trip was wonderful from that point on.