Monarch Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVT

Basle, October 1973 (Propfreak Collection)

Luton based Monarch Airlines operated 8 Series 300 Bristol Britannia aircraft on charter flights, mainly throughout Europe. G-AOVT was acquired from British Eagle in 1968 and flew with the British carrier until 1974 when she was sold to Invicta International. G-AOVT is a proud exhibit at Duxford museum, again in the eyecatching yellow Monarch scheme.

Redcoat Cargo Bristol Britannia G-BRAC

USA, December 1979 (Propfreak Collection)

Redcoat Air Cargo started operations in 1976 with Bristol Britannia 9G-ACE on dry-lease from Geminair to operate cargo flights to West Africa. The contract lasted one year and their first own Britannia was acquired from IAS Cargo. In 1978, the 2nd aircraft was bought, a former Royal Air Force and Aer Turas aircraft, and G-BRAC became the flagship of the young cargo carrier. In 1979 RAC won the contract to fly supplies to Belize for the Ministry of Defence. On February 16th, 1980, on one of those Central America runs, G-BRAC was taking off from Boston in a snowstorm, fully loaded with computer parts destined for Ireland. The Brit crashed 8 minutes later due to accumulation of ice and snow on the fuselage, but also because the aircraft was flown into severe icing conditions following take-off. Of the 9 people aboard, only the flight engineer survived the disaster.