Wellington Airport NZ 1963 - with Surprise Ending

Wellington Airport was opened in 1959. A major new terminal was completed in 1999 and integrated with the international terminal. The 'Vickers Viscount' aircraft at the end of my video suffered only minor damage after skidding out of control in adverse weather conditions.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Airport
• Aircraft
• Planes

[tablatom]

Great, ispent many days there watching those planes.

I'd like to see a Safe air Bristol freighter. They used to scare me as a little boy, but What a sound.

[schritzy]

@tablatom Thanks for your comment. I remember the Bristol freighter well, shame I didn't put one on film back in 1962 - too late now. :-(

[Mega80s]

I've throughly enjoyed watching this vintaged video clip off both the N.a.c's Vickers Viscount 807, & the F.27-100 Fokker Friendship as we will never ever see them flying in our skies again, thankyou for putting this great New Zealand aviation history on Youtube, lastly, at the very end of this film, the N.a.c Vickers Viscount 807 was Flight 143 from Auckland via to Rongotai, that experienced wind gusts and detoured off the runway, was Rego: ZK-BWO, (City of Dunedin).

[schritzy]

Thank you 'Mega80s' for your comment. Very interesting to learn about the Vickers Viscount which overshot the runway. How come you know all those details about this flight? it was so long ago, I took the photo at the end of the video myself btw.

Thanks again. Cheers, Fritz Schöne

[harryfaber]

Well, if you are going to prang, you really want witnesses! Were 'prides' the only injuries?

[awuma]

@tasman763 I was writing from my own memory, and if you look up National Airways Corporation Turbine Power in Wikipedia, you will see my intro dates confirmed: Viscounts 1958, F27s 1960, B737s 1968. In my youth I followed these things very keenly! I was in those days very pro-British and was sad to see the Herald not bought by NAC and the Comet 4C spurned by TEAL (believe it or not, Electras are still in service in Canada and have a starring role in a smash hit TV "reality" series :-)

[tasman763]

@awuma my info comes from an NAC driver who flew all these types. his data is 100% . he is ex southern hub DSP, and senior instructor. he taught me to drive a tractor as well :-) we will stand by our dates.

[awuma]

@tasman763 I think the Viscounts entered service about 1959, and the Friendships a year or two later. The 737's came in about '68 or 69: I have vivid memories of landing at Rongotai on board a 737 in typical Wellington windy weather in 1971. I also flew in the Friendship a few times, but never the Viscount :-(

[roadranga]

to this day, the road at 1:05 looks exactly the same

[tasman763]

Apologies......the Right Seat was Mr A Baggot . Wind was light , co pilot was driving , and landed long, antilock did not have time to aquire speed , and they parked off the end.

[tasman763]

I think the year may be wrong . Both the V807 and F27 were received by NAC 65 - 67 ? I know neither of them were in service in 1963 .

Also, I heard that Mr Pavitt ( the chap who was driving ) had a slight antilock brake prob , and that is why he and BWO ended up off the end of the runway. Might be wrong here, but thought I'd throw in my 5 cents worth anyway

[finnpepe]

Nice! STR 1964 airport