After Swiss Plane Crash And Duckboat Disaster, Time To Remove Relics From Service?

 On Sunday, news flashed across the Internet about a crash of a Swiss Junkers Ju-52 plane, killing 20 passengers and crew. Still sleepy, I assumed it was a 50-year anniversary story of some sort. After all, the JU-52 was the main transport aircraft of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. Who could be flying 75-year-old obsolete aircraft commercially?

But no, the tragic news was new and true. A Junkers Ju-52 tri-engine (propeller, of course) flying between Locarno in southern Switzerland, to Dübendorf, a suburb of Zurich, crashed in the Swiss Alps on Saturday, August 4. The plane, which witnesses said sank down, was found at an altitude of about 8,300 feet above sea level. None of the 17 passengers and three crew members on board survived.

This accident, which resulted in the death of 20 people, is quite terrible. But like the 75-year-old former military duck that sank in Missouri last month, the latest disaster raises questions about why a 79-year-old plane built by the Germans during World War II was still in service.

Although the information about the accident has just begun, so far it seems that the Ju-52 accident was the first fatal accident for the JU-Air Operator. But in North America, the amphibious vehicle (or duck) disaster that killed 17 people in July, including nine members of a single family, was at least the seventh separate fatal accident with respect to the Second World War relic since 1999. The former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, in fact, recently recommended that duck boats be banned from commercial use.

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The Swiss operator, JU-Air, was operating four (now three) Ju-52 trimotor aircraft. JU-Air began flying tourism and other flights in 1983 with Ju-52 transport aircraft declared surplus by the Swiss Army after more than 40 years of Service. Another important milestone was reached by the operator in 2009, when the company celebrated 70 years of flight for its JU-52s, designated HB-HOP, HB-HOS and HB-HOT. The JU-Air timeline noted " Year of manufacture 1939.”

Let that last number sink in. These three planes were real flying museum pieces. Each was built in 1939, the year the Second World War began, making them 79 years old. The design entered service even earlier, in 1932. Around 4800 were built, with most of 2800 flying for the nazi Luftwaffe destroyed in World War II.

Despite (or perhaps because) the state of the museum piece of the Ju-52, the nostalgic JU-Air fleet flew 5,500 people in the first year. By 2014, JU-Air was flying 14,000 people per year.

Kurt Waldmeier, co-founder of Ju-Air, claimed that age was not a factor in the accident, although the investigation has just begun. Waldmeier said the aircraft underwent maintenance after every 35 flight hours and " are flown exclusively by very experienced professional pilots, and strictly controlled and maintained by our own technicians."

The one that crashed had logged 10,187 hours of flight time, Waldmeir said. It was unclear whether he meant it was since JU-Air flights began in 1983, or for the entire life of the aircraft. If the latter, that would involve less than 150 hours of flight time per year, hard to believe for a military and commercial aircraft. However, as an alert reader Flavio Serra

noted, 150 hours of flight time per year in this type of operation (only weekends, only chartered flights, not regular) is actually "a very realistic number. It's even a high flight time per year compared to the average 'collection' aircraft."

As it is early in the investigation, it is unclear whether the age, use or maintenance of the aircraft played a role. Some claim that the record heat wave now sweeping Europe could have caused the accident; hot air can affect both lift and engine performance. Obviously, at this point that's speculation. The investigation promises to be long and complex, not least "because of its ancient nature, the plane did not have a black box, so authorities will not be able to use that to determine what happened.There are also few radar recordings in mountainous areas, such as the accident site.

Like the ducklings, who in the summer months in Boston operate tours from four locations every hour, JU-Air flights were key to a significant commercial operation. The ill-fated two-day trip to Locarno included a couple of "adventure flights," a night in a hotel and meals, for $ 1,136 per person.

JU - 52s fly in formation, January 2000. JU-Air flights traveled between Duebendorf (outer... [ + ] Zurich) and other cities in Switzerland. (AP photo / Walter Grolimund)

JU - 52s fly in formation, January 2000. JU-Air flights traveled between Duebendorf (outer... [+]

While some operators around the United States offer nostalgic C-47 / DC-3 flights, there seem to be few operators of commercial nostalgia flights in the United States by order of JU-Air. However, duck operator Ride the Ducks is described as a national company with multiple locations.

Many ships, aircraft and vehicles built for World War II became surplus after the war. These include the "duck boats" (formerly DUKW amphibious vehicles), the C-47s that became the backbone of many commercial airline operations, and the JU-52s. But at some point, most of these aging vehicles were retired. While I remember fishing with my father on what he described as a converted PT-boat, most of the torpedo boats of World War II, such as the "AMERICA" (once PT-314) were retired or broken up at the beginning of the last century.

"Vintage plane crashes in the Swiss Alps, killing 20 on board," was the headline in the NY Daily News. Nostalgia is a powerful force, but so is the need for safe operations. At a certain point, even a vintage wine will turn into vinegar.