VH-FNL
Fokker F.27 Friendship
200
(c/n 10291)
flown as PH-FII
on December 10, 1965, VH-FNL was handed over to Ansett-ANA a week later.
It went into service with the airline on 4 January, 1966 but soon after
was leased to Ansett subsidiary
MMA for a five months.
Later in the year it went to another Ansett subsidiary, Queensland Air
Lines,
and on December 4 operated its
final service before the airline was absorbed into Ansett-ANA.
David Carter’s 1968 photograph
shows it at Mascot in the livery it had worn since delivery in 1965.
Ansett-ANA became Ansett Airlines
of Australia in November 1968 and in due course -FNL was
repainted in its delta
livery. In January 1977 the Fokker was sold to Air Niugini as
P2-ANI. It
remained with that airline
until February 1982 when it was sold to Rio-Sul of Brazil as
PT-LCZ.
On 6 August , 1984, during a check flight, the crew attempted a
flapless landing at Rio de Janeiro’s
Santos Dumont airport and
skidded off the end of the runway into Guanabara Bay. The former –FNL
was written off and scrapped.