The world’s last operating DC-10-30 aircraft that Biman Bangladesh Airlines owns will now not end its days in a Seattle museum in the United States for shortage of space, officials said.
Instead, the authorities have invited proposals to buy the last DC-10-30 aircraft any time after February 25 either from Dhaka or the United Kingdom or from any other place in an ‘as it is, where it is’ condition, according to the official document signed by Belayet Hossain, Biman’s general manager responsible for corporate planning.
The aircraft is currently operating scheduled passenger flights but it will only remain airworthy until the end of May.
The Biman management earlier planned to donate the last 314-seater aircraft to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
The national flag carrier then decided to phase out the world’s last passenger aircraft of this category by February replacing it with one brand new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which would reach Dhaka by the second week of February.
Biman’s managing director Kevin John Steele told New Age that the company was looking at a number of possibilities, including donating the aircraft to an alternative museum.
‘Biman has already received three offers,’ said Kevin, who is also Biman’s chief executive officer, although he said that it ‘may be sold for scrapping.’
Biman procured three DC 10-30 aircraft in 1983 and a new DC-10-30 was bought from Mcdonnell Douglas in 1989.
As of 2013, Biman had only two DC-10s flying — one, 35 years old, grounded in November 2013 for scrapping locally.
The flag carrier, meanwhile, has arranged a ‘farewell’ before the final flight of the 25-year-old aircraft.
Biman has plans to fly passengers on February 20 from Dhaka to Birmingham in England on the plane one last time and it will then do a couple of one-hour scenic tours at the weekends of February 22, 23 and 24 from Birmingham airport.
The aircraft frequently suffers different technical faults because of its old age, hampering traffic schedule.
The DC-10 is a three-engine wide-bodied jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas.
-With New Age input
