Named “Aotearoa", the Electra’s delivery flight was flown by Lockheed crew from Burbank, California to Nadi and then by TEAL Captains J R McGrane, D G Keesing and P Le Couteur from Nadi to Auckland.
The Electra was entered onto the New Zealand Aircraft Register as ZK-TEA - November 23, 1959, it went into service on December 1 on the Auckland-Sydney service, commanded by Captain J R McGrane, with the Auckland-Melbourne service beginning December 7 under Capt McGrane.
TEA was sold to a US company on May 27, 1972 though operated a Wellington service on May 30th. It flew as an airliner for some months but in December 1972 it was converted to a freighter. In September 1973 it was sold to Fred Olsens ‘Flyveselskap A/S’ in Norway before being sold to another Norwegian airline, but being leased back by Fred Olsen’s.
It was withdrawn for use in August of 1997 and stored in Coventry, UK before being scrapped in June 2006. The nose section was saved however and was sent to NZ in July 2006 under the care of the Ferrymead Aeronautical Society at the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch.
@@@ Electra crash @@@
On March 27, 1965, Teal's Lockheed Electra L-188 ZK-TEC Akaroa, crashed during a training flight at Whenuapai. The airline had done the following manoeuvre many times before: the Electra, flying at precisely 140 knots, could be flown over the runway threshold, throttled back to idle to drop almost vertically and land on the runway. As this would never be done on a passenger flight; the reason for the procedure remains a mystery.
Onboard were a captain, a check captain, a flight engineer, a navigator; the airline's industrial personnel officer and an emergency procedures officer standing behind them.
As Akaroa's speed dropped below 140 knots the aeroplane landed very heavily, collapsing the landing gear; Akaroa shed wings, engines, tailplane and tail as she skidded off the runway and across the grass towards the control tower. Somehow, the two standing officers stayed standing, the fire extinguishers were turned on and everyone was evacuated through the cockpit windows, with one man burning his hand on the escape rope. TEAL salvaged what they could from the wreck and the remains were quickly pushed into a gully behind the NAC hangars before the public saw them. The crash took place in the early hours of the morning. The training procedure was quickly deleted from TEAL's manuals.
Video of aftermath
Watch on youtube.com
This pic is from Ray Massey of TEA at Whenuapai – used before Mangere opened in 1966 – disembarking pax after a dash over the Tasman
Melbourne Essendon early 60’s – was quite a neat scheme!
Air NZ scheme 1968 – TEAL became ANZ April1, 1965.
Found this on a site run by ‘retired Air NZ crew’. Couple of recognisable names!
Courtesy of Grayson Ottoway
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