Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk III-1 Trislander Air Melanesiae (#349) 1973 livery
Livery by Haddock31
Requires the BlackBox Simulation Trislander (commercial product) for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
About the Airline
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (French: Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides) was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu.
In 1906, Britain and France signed an agreement to share the administration of the New Hebrides.
Air Melanesiae was founded in 1965 as a joint venture between the British-owned New Hebrides Airways (founded 1963) and the French-owned Société Néo-Hébridaise de Transports Aériens, known as Hebridair (founded 1964).
By the early 1970s, the airline control was shared by Qantas and British Overseas Airways Corporation, via their shareholdings in New Hebrides Airways ;
and Union des Transports Aériens (UTA) which had taken over Hebridair and renamed it Société Française des Nouvelles-Hébrides.
In 1980, the New Hebrides became an independent country : the Republic of Vanuatu.
In 1981, Vanuatu started issuing local airplane registrations, with the "YJ-" prefix.
In 1989, Air Melanesiae was renamed Vanair.
In 2004, after an early unfruitful attempt a few years before, Vanair fully merged with Vanuatu's government-owned flag carrier, Air Vanuatu.
About the plane
Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk III-1 Trislander #349 was built in 1973. Its career ended in 1990 :
"While approaching Port Vila following an uneventful flight from Lenakel, all three engines failed due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft struck coconut trees and crashed in a pasture. All occupants were rescued.
Probable cause: engine failure caused by fuel exhaustion. It is believed that the fuel selector was positioned on the main fuel tanks which were empty at the time of the accident while fuel remained in the auxiliary tanks.
Declared as damaged beyond repair, it was transported by road to Emua Wharf and towed by boat to Lelepa Island and sunk in 8 metres of water in the Coral Sea off Natapao Village. The waters are crystal clear and the Trislander can be easily observed."
Trislander #349 bore several registrations :
- G-51-349 for initial test flights ;
- G-BASA out of the factory ;
- VP-PAO (reg. from the British Pacific High Ccommission, based in Solomon Islands) in May 1973 ;
- H4-AAQ (Solomon Islands post-independance reg.) in July 1978;
- YJ-RV3, a national Vanuatu registration in 1981 (some online documents erroneously quote this as YV-RV3).