DC-10 takes off last time with passengers

The Biman Bangladesh Airlines' last McDonnell Douglas DC-10 took off for the last time with passengers from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Dhaka-Birmingham route at 8.30 am this morning. Senior officials of the national flag carrier were present at the airport to see off the passengers and bid farewell to the last DC10 of the world. The flight will arrive in Birmingham today. The workhorse will make some fanfare flights in the skies of Birmingham for the following three days too as it flies nine scenic tour flights, Biman officials said. Some forty-three years ago, the legendary workhorse logged its maiden voyage for passengers on August 5, 1971, the year of Bangladesh Liberation, on an American Airlines round trip between Los Angeles and Chicago. And now the final-flight honour goes to the Bangladesh national carrier. The Biman CEO and Managing Director Kevin Steele said that there are two reasons why Biman bids farewell to DC- 10 -- one is Biman crews are no longer to be allowed by civil aviation to fly DC-10 after February 28 as well as the aircraft does not have any license to fly after May and another one it is the high fuel consumption aircraft. "DC-10 uses 35 per cent more fuel per seat than the new Boeing B777-300ER," he said. Biman initially planned to send the last DC-10 to Boeing aviation museum in Seattle in the USA but it had to cancel the plan as Boeing informed their museum has no space to include DC-10 within six months. "Unfortunately we had to cancel the plan to send it to Seattle Museum as we cannot fly the aircraft after May," he said adding "now we will get back the aircraft from Birmingham on February 28 and will decide about fate of the workhorse later." The first DC-10 joined Biman fleet in August 1983 and the last one (S2-ACR) was purchased new in 1989. DC-10s have been the backbone of the Biman fleet for nearly quarter of a century and at one time the fleet numbered six aircraft, according to a news agency.