Yesterday's Airlines
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Links
  • My Fleets
    • My Hobby Room >
      • The Old Hobby Room
    • US Trunk Fleets >
      • My American Airlines Fleet
      • My Braniff Intnl Fleet
      • My Continental Fleet
      • My Delta Air Lines Fleet
      • My Eastern Air Lines Fleet
      • My National Airlines Fleet
      • My Northeast / Capital Fleet
      • My Northwest Airlines Fleet
      • My Pan Am Fleet
      • My TWA Fleet
      • My United Airlines Fleet
      • My Western Airlines Fleet
    • US Local Service Fleets >
      • My Frontier Airlines Fleet
      • My Hughes Airwest Fleet
      • My Ozark Airlines Fleet
      • My Republic Airlines Fleet
      • My Texas Int Fleet
    • US Other Fleets >
      • My Alaska Airlines Fleet
      • My Hawaiian / Aloha Fleet
      • My PSA Fleet
      • My Flying Tigers Fleet
      • My World Airways Fleet
    • UK Fleets >
      • My BEA Fleet >
        • BEA / BA Fleet Video
      • My BOAC Fleet >
        • BOAC Fleet Video
      • My British Airways Fleet
    • China Fleets
    • Russian Fleet >
      • Russian Fleet Video
    • Fleet Videos >
      • US Trunk Airlines
    • Aviation Stickers >
      • ATR Stickers
      • A300 Stickers
      • DC-9 Stickers
      • DC-10 Stickers
  • Aviation Blogs
    • Airline History Blog
    • Model Blog
  • Airline Dev
    • CANADA >
      • Canadian Mainline
      • Canadian Charters & LCCs
      • Canadian Regionals
    • CHINA >
      • The Big Three
      • Hainan Airlines Group
      • Other Chinese Airlines
    • MEXICO >
      • 1921-1988: Duopoly to a monopoly
      • 1988-2005: Competition arrives
      • 2005-2011: Low cost in Mexico
      • 2011-2014: Strength to strength
    • RUSSIA >
      • Aeroflot Group
      • S7 Airlines & AiRUnion
      • Other Russian Airlines
    • SOUTH AFRICA
    • UNITED KINGDOM >
      • BA Genealogy Pt1
      • BA Genealogy Pt2
      • BA Genealogy Pt3
      • BUIA & BUAF Genealogies
      • UK Charter Airlines Pt1
      • UK Charter Airlines Pt2
      • BEA Liveries 1946-1974
      • BOAC Liveries 1939-1974
      • BA Liveries 1974-2015
    • UNITED STATES >
      • Trunk & Local Service Airlines >
        • American / TWA Genealogy
        • Delta / Northwest Genealogy
        • United / Continental Genealogy
        • Braniff / Eastern / US Airways Genealogy
      • Territorial Airlines
      • Intra-State Airlines
      • Supplemental Airlines
      • Deregulation Startups 1
      • Deregulation Startups 2
      • Trunk Airline Livery Changes 1959-1980
  • Airports
    • Dowse National Airport >
      • Gallery 1: Chicago c.1966
      • Gallery 2: Miami c.1970
    • Wright Field Municipal >
      • Wright Field Video Tour
    • Xin Long International
    • Imogenia Intnl 1/600 Scale
    • Real Airport Histories >
      • Albany International
      • Dallas Love Field
      • Rochester International Pt1
      • Rochester International Pt2
      • San Francisco - 1927-1959
      • San Francisco - 1959-1978
      • San Francisco - 1978-2015
      • San Jose International
      • San Jose International Pt2
  • Mould Reviews
    • Airbus >
      • Airbus A300
      • Airbus A310
      • Airbus A320
      • Airbus A330-200/300
      • Airbus A330-200F
    • Boeing >
      • Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser
      • Boeing 707-120/138/720
      • Boeing 707-320/420
      • Boeing 727-100
      • Boeing 727-200
      • Boeing 737-100/200
      • Boeing 737-300/400/500
      • Boeing 737NG
      • Boeing 747-100/200
      • Boeing 747SP
      • Boeing 757-200
      • Boeing 767-200
      • Boeing 767-300
      • Boeing 777-200
    • British >
      • BAC One-Eleven 200-500
      • BAE-146 / Avro RJ-85-100
      • De Havilland DH-106 Comet
      • Hawker Siddeley Trident
      • Shorts 360
      • Vickers VC10
      • Vickers Viscount
    • Douglas >
      • Douglas DC-3 / C-47
      • Douglas DC-6
      • Douglas DC-7
      • Douglas DC-7C
      • Douglas DC-8-10-50
      • Douglas DC-8-60s/70s
      • Douglas DC-9
      • McDonnell Douglas DC-10
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-11
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-80
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-90
    • Lockheed >
      • Lockheed Constellation
      • Lockheed Super Connie
      • Lockheed L-1649 Starliner
      • Lockheed L-188 Electra
      • Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1
      • Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 500
    • Other >
      • Convair CV-240-580
      • Convair CV-880/990
      • Curtiss C-46
      • Fairchild F-27 / Fokker F27
      • Fairchild-Hiller FH-227
      • SE 210 Caravelle
    • Russian >
      • Ilyushin IL-62
      • Ilyushin IL-86/IL-96
      • Tupolev TU-154B-2/M
  • Real As It Gets
    • Real As It Gets - 1/200
    • Real As It Gets - Africa
    • Real As It Gets - Asia
    • Real As It Gets - China
    • Real As It Gets - Europe
    • Real As It Gets - Middle East
    • Real As It Gets - N America
    • Real As It Gets - Oceania
    • Real As It Gets - Russia
    • Real As It Gets - S America

West African Nines: Ghana's DC-9-51s

30/3/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
Ghana has always been one of the more stable African nations and Ghana Airways was once one of the better run African national airlines. The fleet, though small, was kept modern throughout the 1970s and 1980s with Douglas and Fokker products and for many years the airline was the operator of West Africa's only DC-9. In fact the carrier's allegiance to old Douglas products was one of the factors in its downfall.
I have written about Ghana Airways in general in a two part blog entry whose parts can be found here and here, however in this post I want to look at just one of the types operated by the airline - namely the DC-9. It appears that Ghana Airways first exposure to the type was in March 1976 when they leased a Hughes Airwest example, N914RW, for three months. This was followed by a Hawaiian Airlines DC-9-51, N629HA, on lease from January 1977 to April 1978. The Ghana Airways fleet during the mid-70s was rather interesting consisting of a single HS-748 (9G-ABX - the survivor of a pair), two F28s (9G-ABZ and ACA), 1 Vickers VC10 (9G-ABO) and a Douglas DC-8 (9G-ACG).
Picture
Ghana Airways Douglas DC-9-51 9G-ADT Aeroclassics 1:400 Scale Model Airliner
In 1976 the airline decided to renew its fleet with a single McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 and a pair of DC-9-51s. The leases of the DC-9-32 and 51 can probably be seen as short term fillers whilst it awaited its own ordered aircraft. Something similar occured with its DC-10 also, which didn't end up arriving until 1983! I assume financial issues must have been the reason for these delays and indeed when 9G-ACM was finally delivered from McDonnell Douglas on July 13, 1978 she was never joined by a sister and in fact became the only DC-9 in West Africa.

The DC-9-51 flew alongside the pair of F28s on regional routes into the 1980s, Though one of the F28s (9G-ACA was written off in 1981 she was replaced by a new sistership registered 9G-ADA. Ghana Airways financial position in fact became more perilous throughout the 1990s and fleet replacement with more modern types was bit a distant dream.
Picture
The long serving DC-9-51 had her career ended not by retirement but unfortunately by accident. On Saturday April 12, 1997 she was damaged beyond repair attempting to land at Abidjan in the Ivory Coast in heavy rainfall and poor visibility. Whilst undertaking an instrument landing she touched down 900 metres down the wet runway, veered to the left and ran off the tarmac. Her undercarriage collapsed but she came to a stop and fortunately there were no fatalities.
Far from being the end of the DC-9 story at troubled Ghana Airways however the airline took the highly unusual step of acquiring replacement DC-9s rather than leasing more modern equipment. In fact as with the DC-10 fleet the airline underwent a mini-expansion. The first aircraft to arrive was registered 9G-ADT in September 1997. She was joined by 9G-ADU in November and 9G-ADY in July 1999.
ADT had started life as N923VJ with Allegheny in December 1975 but was sold, along with their other series 51s, to Eastern, as N404EA, in May 1978. Following Eastern’s demise she became YV-90C with AVENSA. 9G-ADU had a similar history whilst 9G-ADY was amazingly the same aircraft that had been leased in the 70s from Hawaiian. Her second spell with Ghana was sadly cut short as she damaged beyond repair in a crash landing at Conakry in Guinea on Monday November 13, 2000. Again there were no fatalities. She had been operating a multi-stop Accra-Abidjan-Monrovia-Freetown-Conakry route at the time.
Ghana Airways limped into the 2000s with a variety of rescue plans failing. Its own DC-9s appear to have been parked at accra by late 2003 but the failing carrier kept faith with the trusty, but uneconomic, DC-9-51 and wet leased a pair from Africa One in July 2003. Both were returned in 2004 and in 2005 the entire carrier was liquidated. Though fairly obscure Ghana's DC-9 was no doubt familiar to thousands of passengers who flew on her and 9G-ACM nearly unique amongst her type, except for the airline's misguided devotion to the old Diesel Nine.
References

9G-ACM. Aviation Safety.net
9G-ADY. Aviation Safety.net
Guttery, Ben. R. Encyclopedia of African Airlines
1 Comment
BWI-ROCman
4/4/2016 08:18:28 am

Very interesting history. So Ghana's not only good at soccer, the were a more stable airline country, too. I just hope they can get a well-managed national carrier in the air again, and not just contribute to the march of boring megacarriers in developing places.

Jim

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm Richard Stretton: a fan of classic airliners and airlines who enjoys exploring their history through my collection of die-cast airliners. If you enjoy the site please donate whatever you can to help keep it running:


    RSS Feed


    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Categories

    All
    2015 Review
    2016 Review
    2017 Review
    Aeroclassics
    African Airlines
    Airbus A300
    Airbus A310
    Airbus A319
    Airbus A320
    Airbus A321
    Airbus A330
    Airbus A340
    Airbus A350
    Airbus A380
    Air China
    Airlines Of Africa
    Airlines Of Asia
    Airlines Of Australasia
    Airlines Of C America
    Airlines Of Canada
    Airlines Of China
    Airlines Of Europe
    Airlines Of Middle East
    Airlines Of Russia
    Airlines Of S America
    Airlines Of The UK
    Airlines Of The USA
    Alaska Airlines
    Aloha Airlines
    American Airlines
    America West Airlines
    Antonov AN-124
    Apollo
    ATR-72
    Aurora Models
    BAC One-Eleven
    Big Bird
    Blue Box
    Boeing 707
    Boeing 717
    Boeing 720
    Boeing 727
    Boeing 737
    Boeing 747
    Boeing 757
    Boeing 767
    Boeing 777
    Boeing 787
    Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser
    Braniff International
    Bristol Britannia
    British Aerospace BAE-146
    British Airways
    British European (BEA)
    Canadair C-4 North Star
    Capital Airlines
    Cathay Pacific
    Central American Airlines
    Chicago & Southern
    China Eastern
    China Southern
    Concorde
    Continental Airlines
    Convair 240
    Convair 440
    Convair 580
    Convair 880
    Convair 990
    Curtiss C-46 Commando
    Delta Air Lines
    DH-106 Comet 4
    Douglas DC-3
    Douglas DC-4
    Douglas DC-6
    Douglas DC-7
    Douglas DC-7C
    Douglas DC-8
    Douglas DC-9
    Dragon Wings
    Eastern Air Lines
    Embraer 190
    Embraer ERJ-145
    Fairchild F-27
    Fairchild FH-227
    Fokker 50
    Fokker F100
    Fokker F27
    Fokker F28
    Freighters
    Gemini Jets
    Handley Page Herald
    Herpa
    HS-748
    HS Trident
    Ilyushin IL-62
    Ilyushin IL-76
    Ilyushin IL-86
    Ilyushin IL-96
    JC Wings
    Jet X
    Jet-X
    Lockheed Constellation
    Lockheed Hercules
    Lockheed L-1011 Tristar
    Lockheed L-188 Electra
    Lufthansa
    MD-11
    MD-80
    MD-90
    MDD DC-10
    NAMC YS-11
    National Airlines
    Northwest Airlines
    Oceania Airlines
    Pan Am
    Panda Models
    Phoenix Models
    SE-210 Caravelle
    Shorts-360
    Trans-world-airlines-twa
    Trans-world-airlines-twa
    Tupolev TU-144
    Tupolev TU-154
    United Airlines
    USAir
    Vickers VC10
    Vickers Viscount
    Western Airlines
    Witty Wings

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Links
  • My Fleets
    • My Hobby Room >
      • The Old Hobby Room
    • US Trunk Fleets >
      • My American Airlines Fleet
      • My Braniff Intnl Fleet
      • My Continental Fleet
      • My Delta Air Lines Fleet
      • My Eastern Air Lines Fleet
      • My National Airlines Fleet
      • My Northeast / Capital Fleet
      • My Northwest Airlines Fleet
      • My Pan Am Fleet
      • My TWA Fleet
      • My United Airlines Fleet
      • My Western Airlines Fleet
    • US Local Service Fleets >
      • My Frontier Airlines Fleet
      • My Hughes Airwest Fleet
      • My Ozark Airlines Fleet
      • My Republic Airlines Fleet
      • My Texas Int Fleet
    • US Other Fleets >
      • My Alaska Airlines Fleet
      • My Hawaiian / Aloha Fleet
      • My PSA Fleet
      • My Flying Tigers Fleet
      • My World Airways Fleet
    • UK Fleets >
      • My BEA Fleet >
        • BEA / BA Fleet Video
      • My BOAC Fleet >
        • BOAC Fleet Video
      • My British Airways Fleet
    • China Fleets
    • Russian Fleet >
      • Russian Fleet Video
    • Fleet Videos >
      • US Trunk Airlines
    • Aviation Stickers >
      • ATR Stickers
      • A300 Stickers
      • DC-9 Stickers
      • DC-10 Stickers
  • Aviation Blogs
    • Airline History Blog
    • Model Blog
  • Airline Dev
    • CANADA >
      • Canadian Mainline
      • Canadian Charters & LCCs
      • Canadian Regionals
    • CHINA >
      • The Big Three
      • Hainan Airlines Group
      • Other Chinese Airlines
    • MEXICO >
      • 1921-1988: Duopoly to a monopoly
      • 1988-2005: Competition arrives
      • 2005-2011: Low cost in Mexico
      • 2011-2014: Strength to strength
    • RUSSIA >
      • Aeroflot Group
      • S7 Airlines & AiRUnion
      • Other Russian Airlines
    • SOUTH AFRICA
    • UNITED KINGDOM >
      • BA Genealogy Pt1
      • BA Genealogy Pt2
      • BA Genealogy Pt3
      • BUIA & BUAF Genealogies
      • UK Charter Airlines Pt1
      • UK Charter Airlines Pt2
      • BEA Liveries 1946-1974
      • BOAC Liveries 1939-1974
      • BA Liveries 1974-2015
    • UNITED STATES >
      • Trunk & Local Service Airlines >
        • American / TWA Genealogy
        • Delta / Northwest Genealogy
        • United / Continental Genealogy
        • Braniff / Eastern / US Airways Genealogy
      • Territorial Airlines
      • Intra-State Airlines
      • Supplemental Airlines
      • Deregulation Startups 1
      • Deregulation Startups 2
      • Trunk Airline Livery Changes 1959-1980
  • Airports
    • Dowse National Airport >
      • Gallery 1: Chicago c.1966
      • Gallery 2: Miami c.1970
    • Wright Field Municipal >
      • Wright Field Video Tour
    • Xin Long International
    • Imogenia Intnl 1/600 Scale
    • Real Airport Histories >
      • Albany International
      • Dallas Love Field
      • Rochester International Pt1
      • Rochester International Pt2
      • San Francisco - 1927-1959
      • San Francisco - 1959-1978
      • San Francisco - 1978-2015
      • San Jose International
      • San Jose International Pt2
  • Mould Reviews
    • Airbus >
      • Airbus A300
      • Airbus A310
      • Airbus A320
      • Airbus A330-200/300
      • Airbus A330-200F
    • Boeing >
      • Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser
      • Boeing 707-120/138/720
      • Boeing 707-320/420
      • Boeing 727-100
      • Boeing 727-200
      • Boeing 737-100/200
      • Boeing 737-300/400/500
      • Boeing 737NG
      • Boeing 747-100/200
      • Boeing 747SP
      • Boeing 757-200
      • Boeing 767-200
      • Boeing 767-300
      • Boeing 777-200
    • British >
      • BAC One-Eleven 200-500
      • BAE-146 / Avro RJ-85-100
      • De Havilland DH-106 Comet
      • Hawker Siddeley Trident
      • Shorts 360
      • Vickers VC10
      • Vickers Viscount
    • Douglas >
      • Douglas DC-3 / C-47
      • Douglas DC-6
      • Douglas DC-7
      • Douglas DC-7C
      • Douglas DC-8-10-50
      • Douglas DC-8-60s/70s
      • Douglas DC-9
      • McDonnell Douglas DC-10
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-11
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-80
      • McDonnell Douglas MD-90
    • Lockheed >
      • Lockheed Constellation
      • Lockheed Super Connie
      • Lockheed L-1649 Starliner
      • Lockheed L-188 Electra
      • Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1
      • Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 500
    • Other >
      • Convair CV-240-580
      • Convair CV-880/990
      • Curtiss C-46
      • Fairchild F-27 / Fokker F27
      • Fairchild-Hiller FH-227
      • SE 210 Caravelle
    • Russian >
      • Ilyushin IL-62
      • Ilyushin IL-86/IL-96
      • Tupolev TU-154B-2/M
  • Real As It Gets
    • Real As It Gets - 1/200
    • Real As It Gets - Africa
    • Real As It Gets - Asia
    • Real As It Gets - China
    • Real As It Gets - Europe
    • Real As It Gets - Middle East
    • Real As It Gets - N America
    • Real As It Gets - Oceania
    • Real As It Gets - Russia
    • Real As It Gets - S America
✕