HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Aer Turas Teoranta (from the Irish meaning ''Air Journey'') was an Irish airline and later a freight operator based in
Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, from 1962 until May 2003.


History

Aer Turas started operations in 1962 as an air taxi service from Ireland to the UK with a single
de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outd ...
. They soon began to focus on freight rather than passenger operations and were quite successful for many years. In the 1980s
Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...
acquired a majority shareholding in Aer Turas. However, a decade later, soaring insurance costs, increased competition and the turbulence following the September 11th terrorist attacks in the USA all contributed to an overall operating loss and ultimately resulted in the company going into receivership.


Fleet

The airline began operations with a single
de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outd ...
. Soon they expanded the fleet with Douglas DC-3, DC-4, DC-7, DC-8-63, Bristol 170 and Canadair CL44 aircraft. Of the two remaining DC-8 aircraft, EI-CGO was sold to First International Airlines and EI-BNA was to be broken up for spares. The last aircraft acquired for the fleet was passenger configured EI-CNN (formerly G-BAAA & VR-HHV) a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 (cn 193K-1024) which had been delivered new to the
Court Line Court Line was a 20th-century British Tramp trade, tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and Air charter, charter aviation. Its merchant shipping interests were based in Port of London, Lo ...
, based at
London Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the Airports of London, fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a comp ...
, in February 1973. It was returned to Lockheed when Court Line ceased trading. In 1977 it became VR-HHV with Cathay Pacific and flew for them for 2 decades. Then to EI-CNN with Aer Turas working for TBG, Kampuchea and Air Scandic before being stored in 1998 at Abu Dhabi (AUH) pending a C-Check which never happened and was ultimately scrapped in 2006. This was a historically significant aircraft in that it was the first wide-body in Europe with a charter operator and revolutionised the European aviation industry.


Aircraft operated

*
de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outd ...
1963 *
Bristol Britannia The Bristol Type 175 Britannia is a retired United Kingdom, British flight length, medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to meet British civilian aviation needs. During development two prototypes were lo ...
*
Bristol Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner. Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively s ...
*
Canadair CL-44 The Canadair CL-44 was a Canadian turboprop airliner and cargo aircraft based on the Bristol Britannia that was developed and produced by Canadair in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although innovative, only a small number of the aircraft were ...
*
Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...
1963 *
Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...
1965 *
Douglas DC-7 The Douglas DC-7 is a retired American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after ...
1969 – 1971 *
Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is an early long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner designed and produced by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. Work began in 1952 towards the United States Air Force's (USA ...
1984 - 2003 * Hawker Siddeley Argosy 1971 *
Lockheed Tristar The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 74 ...


Accidents and incidents

* 12 June 1967: A
Bristol Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner. Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively s ...
(registration: EI-APM) arriving at
Dublin Airport Dublin Airport () is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinstown, north of Dublin, and south of the town of Swords. In 2024, over 34 ...
from
Prestwick Prestwick () is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about south, and the small vi ...
, made a heavy landing. The crew attempted a
go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on Final_approach_(aeronautics), final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for var ...
but had lost power from one engine. The aircraft failed to gain altitude and banked left until it struck ground objects including an office block, then bursting into flames. Both pilots were killed and aircraft written off. This was the first fatal crash at Dublin Airport. * 3 March 1974: A Douglas DC-7C/F (registration: EI-AWG) operating an Aer Turas Teo charter flight from Dublin landed at
Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a company wholly owned by ...
on runway 08 just after midnight but failed to achieve
reverse thrust Reverse or reversing may refer to: Arts and media *Reverse (Eldritch album), ''Reverse'' (Eldritch album), 2001 *Reverse (2009 film), ''Reverse'' (2009 film), a Polish comedy-drama film *Reverse (2019 film), ''Reverse'' (2019 film), an Iranian cr ...
. Normal braking application also appeared to the crew to be ineffective and the emergency pneumatic brakes were applied. All main wheel tyres burst. The aircraft overran the runway and continued over the steep bank at the eastern perimeter finally coming to rest in soft ground 90 metres beyond. The situation had also been made worse by an inadvertent application of forward thrust by the crew in trying to achieve reverse thrust. Three of the six passengers and two of the four crew were injured. The aircraft was badly damaged and deemed a write-off.


References


External links


Aer Turas Remembered
{{Airlines of the Republic of Ireland Defunct airlines of the Republic of Ireland Airlines established in 1962 Airlines disestablished in 2003 2003 disestablishments in Ireland Irish companies established in 1962