Because the hot-shot playboy involved didn't pay his bills when he should...crews still owed two months wages, last I heard.

Just to make it clear about 411A's post above. That had nothing to do with Aer Turas. The L1011's were just put on the Aer Turas AOC. Aer Turas had no ownership etc of the aircraft. The "hot-shot" playboy owned the aircraft, controlled the aircraft commercially and paid all monies regarding the Tri-Stars. The "hot-shot" playboy never worked for Aer Turas but was based in the UK and had his own company, TBG. So payment of salaries, bills etc are nothing to do with Aer Turas.

A pity the pax ops stopped, as when it was flying, the operation was great. I'm sure some people remember EI-CNN flying in the summer of '99 for Air Scandic out of MAN. All the crews stayed in the Brittania. EI-CNN is alas, in AUH where it has been since the end of '99.

You can find them here.
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safety?
 

What's the dig at safety at MK? Was looking at a job there!

AerCArgo,

Willing to be shown to be wrong, but as I understand it the 1011 operation was not owned by ATT as you correctly state.

However, my understanding of things is that the airline, TBG Airways, was jointly owned by the hotshot and the owner of ATT on a 50-50 cost/profit sharing scheme. I know that the engines on CNN were owned by a company jointly owned by the pair and I think it was called "astra" or some such thing. TBG Airways was a subsidiary of TBG and Astra a separate entity. Rather like the Maxwell empire but not nearly as smart. So, although ATT did not actually own TBG, there must have been a fair bit of loot tied up in it, so when it went down it must have had a knock on effect on ATT.

The reason the operation stopped was there were insufficient funds in the pot for the extra work needed on the CNN's C check. I understand that there was enough for the basic check but not enough to cover the extra cost of repairing some corrosion that was found. Hotshot was unable to raise extra funding from anyone because of the reasons already raised by 411A.

Hotshots gameplan to get out of this dilemma rested in securing a deposit from some Algerian outfit to operate out of there doing services around the middle east. Trouble was no money was ever forthcoming and there was a huge problem persuading the staff that living in hotac in Algiers was really going to be OK and anyway we'd have armed guards on the way to and from the airport. This at a time when the news reports and papers were full of the latest atrocities committed by the rebels. I know I had already spent too much time as a "legitimate target" and certainly didn't want any more.

I am still owed money by them as are many others and I didn't even get the courtessy of a letter saying I was no longer employed.

I wish everyone at ATT all the best and hope they find a new job very soon.

CS