Baby's gettin old

THE END OF THE LINE

DC-9 On to its next life as a pop can :)

This is what is left of the DC-9 that collided with an A320 after suffering a hydraulic failure taxiing to the gate. Click here to watch the video of the collision.

A320 Airbus being parted out in the desert.

I was browsing through Airliners.net and saw what looked to be an Airbus A320 already in the scrap heap ! The reason this comes as a shock to me is that in my mind the Airbus was in my life the most "advanced" airliner and my first ever ride in an airliner was a Canadian Airlines A320. To put it into perspective DC-3's are still flying and some were made in the late 30's ! The DC-3 is not pressurized so that would be one reason (not as much airframe pressurization cycles fatiguing the metal)





This could have been the first commercial airplane I have ever flown on. This was photo was taken the summer I was working on the ramp for Air Canada so it fits nicely in with the story. Ironically enough I rode in an ex-Canadian Airlines 320 4 days ago that still had the original Canadian Airlines seats in the back and also had the big old CRT's in the center isle on the roof. Now a days with LiveTV in Westjet and the new Embraer's on Air Canada its like never leaving home being able to select a channel to watch or see the current news and weather.

The funny part of seeing an Airbus A320 in the desert getting hacked up is the fact that Northwest is still flying the DC-9 ! I guess you break even when you fly an aircraft that was paid off 20 years ago but sucks 50 percent more fuel. Just to see how popular the DC-9 still is at NWA look in the picture below taken only a year ago !

KDTW-Detroit Metro and a fleury of DC-9's

I worked the ramp for Air Canada when these airplanes were almost all but phased out. From their physical appearance they were built like a tank which has served them well. I only have been in one and that was in J-Class from Charllottetown, PEI to Toronto Pearson. Since I was way up in the front and the engines where way in the back I found it to be a nice quiet ride. Plus the free food and booze was great !

Anyways just another post to show ya that when things you used to think were state of the art meet the end of highway in the sky you must be getting old :)

Cheers,
FD