ZK-NZX Air New Zealand Boeing 747-219B departing runway 08 at London Gatwick

Gatwick in the 80s - a view from the Roof Terrace
In the 1970s and 80s, Gatwick had a dedicated viewing terrace on the roof of the only terminal building. It was used by flyers, relatives and plane spotters alike, and it even had a café and fountains! It enabled quite a panoramic view of the airport.

Air New Zealand operated a fleet of seven DC-10s between 1973 and 1984. One of the fleet, ZK-NZP, was tragically lost with the loss of all on board when it crashed into Mt Erebus, Antarctica during a sightseeing flight. In 1981-82, they supplemented their long-haul fleet with five brand new Boeing 747s - ZK-NZV, NZW, NZX, NZY, and NZZ.

ZK-NZX 'Takitimu' c/n 22724 Boeing 747-219B delivered new to Air New Zealand in Jun 1981 and flew with the airline for an impressive 19 years, including a brief lease to Malaysian Airlines as 9M-MHG in 1992-3. In May 2000, the aircraft was sold to Virgin Atlantic as G-VSSS, and was leased to Air Atlantic (Iceland) as TF-ATW a couple of times in the 2000s. In 2004 it was transferred to Air Atlanta (Europe) and was retired the following year. The aircraft was sent back to the USA for storage at Mojave, but later in 2005, the aircraft was reactivated for a lease to Transaero Airlines as N703TA then VP-BQB. Final withdrawal came in 2009 with storage at Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome - Utica (New York) where the aircraft was broken up.

Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and 300mm lens, using Kodacolor GA100 print film. Scanned from the original negative without restoration.

You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/

Taken in: UK / England / Mole Valley / Gatwick (show map)

Taken on: September 1, 1986

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Camera: NORITSU KOKI EZ Controller (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NORITSU KOKI EZ Controller
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.1 (Windows)
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