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Final Departure
Exactly 2 years ago, CS-TEB flew towards Amman where she remains in storage. That day, an era of 27 years of L-1011 operations in Portugal, was ended.
When this site was launched in January 2000, CS-TEB was the only L-1011 flying in Portugal after TAP phased-out the type in 1997. Eventually the number of L-1011s in the Portuguese Civil Aviation Registry grew up to 4 units. The L-1011 also had a second life in Portugal in the charter role which lasted almost 13 years! Air Luxor, euroAtlantic, LUZair and YES were the airlines that made extensive use of the type.
Although CS-TEB could be made airworthy again, the fact is that its operation would be economically unsustainable, specially after the last wing inspection regime AD was issued. Today, the only way to remember the glorious days of this machine is through photographs... I still remember the first photo of CS-TEB I took. It was during a heavy thunderstorm, on a wednesday, 3rd of May 2000.
As shown in the "Farewell L-1011" post, my last pictures of her were taken the same day she departed for storage. Unfortunatelly I couldn't see the take-off. However, that unique moment was captured by Pedro Carvalho who originally shared the following photos in "Aviação Portugal" community.
A tribute to this aircraft was made by my friend and Air Navigation instructor Francisco Oliveira, who was also a Flight Engineer with TAP and later with euroAtlantic airways since the early days of this airline as Air Madeira.
I would like to thank both Pedro Carvalho and Francisco Oliveira for these beautiful pictures.
