Originally Posted by
old,not bold
At the time (late '79, early '80) BAF had an ACMI-type contract to operate 4 Heralds in Algeria,
Propliner magazine back in the 1980s had a fascinating extended article by a BAF Herald pilot of a lengthy charter they did to support the Paris-Dakar rally across the Sahara, much being Algeria, which took a couple of weeks, through various obscure airports and desert strips, with some dicey moments. They did a range of supply and personnel ferrying, medevacs, etc as required by the day. Their background in Algerian Herald operations must have helped get the work. If that is your sort of thing, it must have been a great flight.
He announced that he had been to Heathrow, called in a favour from an old friend he had helped in the past, and had bought the entire BA Viscount fleet
Mike Keegan had been the "K" in founding BKS, as described above, who later concentrated at Leeds/Newcastle but originally were based at Southend. After BEA bought them out he made a sufficient fuss about them still having his K in the airline name that there had to be a complete rebranding of the company to Northeast. So it's a bit of a surprise he still had favours to call in over at BA HQ.