The life of a Boeing 737-200

 

Born on January 15, 1979 is this fresh new Boeing 737-200, #551 off the assembly line! She was sold to Trans European Airlines - TEA just 11 days later. She was granted the registration code OO-TEK.
TEA leased her to Nordair of Canada as soon as she was acquired. With Nordair, she wore the registration C-GNDG.
Nordair took great care of her!
November of that year, she was then leased to Quebecair. With this new airline, she was given the registration of C-GQBT.
She was traded over and over, flying between TEA and Quebec air 3 times!
Finally, on December 30, 1982, she was sent to the United States and was leased to Pan Am. Oh man did she love wearing that classic, iconic logo! She was also given new registration! N385PA were her numbers while "Clipper Berlin" was her ship name!
She loved to let her 2 PW JT8D-9A engines scream across the tarmac.
Pan Am's lease soon ended and she was sent back to fly for Quebec air on November 15, 1985, and was given her old registration back, C-GQBT.
On October 12, 1986, just 11 months later, she was sent all the way to Europe to fly for British Midland! In Great Britain, she was given her original TEA registration of OO-TEK.

In this photograph you can see she is painted in TEA colors, but British Midland is painted on the side.
One of her sister planes painted in what she would of looked like if she was owned by British Midland, rather than a lease.
June 1st 1988 marked her first day of flying for Tunis Air, all the way in Tunisia! Man, has she gone a long ways!
After her adventures in Tunisia, TEA still owned her, but was then sold to a company called GATX, or, General American Transportation Corporation. GATX leased her to Aloha Airlines on February 17, 1989!

She was also given yet another registration number, N728AL.
She LOVED breathing in that fresh, Hawaiian air into her engines and taking people to resorts and vacation hot spots.
She was then repainted to look more modern and was given another registration code, N804AL, after being purchased by Aloha Airlines in February 15, 1995, and was no longer leased.

She was granted the name, Kauikeaouli.

Kauikeaouli was the King of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854.
On January 22, 1997, Aviation Capital Group - ACG, bought the plane and leased it back to Aloha Airlines.
On 17. Sep 2002, she was put into storage at the Mojave Air and Space Port, also known as the Mojave Bone Yard.

In this picture you can see her in the Desert waiting to be purchased one last time.

Her left vertical stabilizer was removed at one point to be used on another aircraft.
She slowly started to be broken apart for her parts.



The scrapping process.
What was once a roaring, screaming aircraft, now sits silent.

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