Aircraft PH-DDZ Data

This aircraft was built as C-47A 43-15288 and delivered to the USAAF during March 1944. No record card exists for its war record, but it continued serving with the USAF after the war for many years before being placed in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, where it was “frozen” in 1961. By 1964 the plane was being operated by the Federal Aviation Agency as N161, and in may that year it was sold to Somalia as 60S-AAA, operating out of Mogadishu. In Oct 1970 it was reregistered as 60-SAA, still serving with Somali Airlines as late as 1978. Jan. 1981 found the plane registered as N920 to ATC, Inc of Reno, NV, but was being used by Malta International Aviation Company in Malta. This registration was cancelled in June 1982, and the plane went to Pyramid Airlines in Cairo, Egypt as SU-BFY. The plane continued at Malta in Pyramid markings. In 1987 the Dutch Dakota Association acquired the aircraft and ferried the plane to Amsterdam in May that year. Named “Doornroosje” (“Sleeping Beauty”), the plane was registered as PH-DDZ. (Information from Arthur Pearcy’s 1988 book, “Douglas DC-3 Survivors”)