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(L to R) Capt. S.S. Zubair, First
Officer Farooq Ahmad and Capt. M. Saeed in the cockpit of Fokker
F27 Friendship Mark 200 (AP-BDF). The photo was taken during aircraft's
ferry flight from Australia to Pakistan in 1988. After
completing approval flight under the command of Capt. S.S. Zubair, the aircraft left Brisbane Airport on April 29, 1988 and
was handed over to PIA at Darwin Airport and from there it began
a long delivery flight to Pakistan that included stopover at
Kupang in West Timor, night stop in Bali, refueling in Jakarta,
night stop in Singapore followed by another night stop in
Bangkok, refueling in Dhaka, stopover in New Delhi, night stop
at Lahore and finally to Karachi.
This particular F27 (c/n 10254)
was built in 1964 and delivered to All Nippon Airways and after
that it served a number of different airlines. Before becoming
AP-BDF it flew for Air Queensland with registration mark VH-FNW.
AP-BDF, after arriving in Pakistan, was transferred to Pakistan
Maritime Security Agency in June 1988, then to Pakistan Army in
1992 and finally to Pakistan Air Force in December 1994. It
served Pakistan Air Force with serial# 10254 before meeting a
tragic accident on February 20, 2003.
On February 20, 2003, former AP-BDF as Pakistan Air Force F27
(serial# 10254) was operating flight from Chaklala Air Base,
Rawalpindi, to Kohat Air Base when it crashed into a mountain
killing all 17 people aboard the aircraft including Chief of
Pakistan Air Force Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir. Bad weather
with poor visibility was blamed for the tragic accident |
