Thank you for the replies. I suppose the long overwater flights are often a planned leap of faith and as said, no-one came to grief! I hadn't realised that UTA used their Caravelle on such long routes, 2 engines to infinity and beyond! Were these 2 examples the ones that went to Air Afrique by chance ? UTA was a decent enough airline, although I only flew the 'shorter' legs to the French Caribbean/Florida from Paris on the DC-10's