VH-EQW
Britten-Norman BN-2A
Islander
(c/n 173)
VH-EQW spend just over four weeks on the Australian register before
being cancelled on 1 Sept-
ember 1970
as sold abroad. It had flown into at Bankstown as G-AYCY
and quickly prepared
for delivery to
Air Melanesia in the Anglo-French colony of New
Hebrides. On arrival at Port
Vila it became VP-PAS. In July 1978 it transferred to the
Solomon Islands register as H4-AAP
where it remained until March 1981. It then became YJ-RV5,
still with Air Melanesia, on the
register of the
newly independent nation of Vanuatu. In November 1989 Air
Melanesia was renam-
ed Vanair
but a month later –RV5 was withdrawn from use.