LUX-KEF-NYC by DC6B on Loftleidir (1961)

Post by **sn26567** » 05 Sep 2003, 09:20

This is a very old story, but it remains vivid in my memory, because it was my very first flight, at age 17. I had been invited to work as a counselor near New York in a day camp for kids. The cheapest way to get there was not Sabena or Pan Am out of BRU, but the Icelandic national carrier Loftleidir. My parents thus drove me to LUX, where I boarded what I deemed an impressive aeroplane (at that time), the DC6B. Sabena was already flying the B707, like Pan Am, and might still have had some DC7Cs.

I found the flight rather comfortable. I sat at a window and and, although we departed many hours late - in the late afternoon - for technical reasons, I enjoyed everything. After many hours (including a short night) came the intermediate stop at Reykjavik (REK) Keflavik (KEF). It was fun: the airport is far away from the city and from everything else; we got into the terminal, where we were offered a healthy hot breakfast under the midnight sun.

The continuation to New York Idlewild (I don't know the code - it was not yet called JFK: he was still alive!) was more difficult because of the tiredness, but I still tried to look at everything: the icebergs, the frozen lakes of Northern Canada, etc. There was a second stop for fuelling only at Goose Bay, a NATO base in Northern Canada. No one could leave the aircraft. Arrival in New York was the second day in the evening, some 24 hours after departure. I was exhausted and still had to go to New City by a combination of buses, because the people waiting for me left after they learned the plane would be delayed by several hours. Anyone else would have called this dreadful. Not me, it was my first flight.

The return 8 weeks later was much better, on time, and with only one intermediate stop in KEF, but then again with an excellent hot meal in the cold summer sunshine.

Altogether, an excellent learning course about flying and its (sometimes) problems and (often) joys.

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 14 Sep 2003, 15:28

That sounds fun, going via Iceland of all places! Very different!
I once read somewhere that the Keflavik airport is on a NATO base.

qnnm · Post by **qnnm** » 14 Sep 2003, 15:56

On 10 aug 1977, I enjoyed a similar experience.
LUX-KEF-JFK on N797FT DC-8 in basic Flying Tiger c/s, but with Loftleidir titles
(at Lux we were parked next to 9Q-CWK CL 44 SGA)
The flight was a real 'full house' (US, Germans, French and ...Belgians).

At KEF:
TF-VVB B720 ; TF-VLA & TF-VLB B720 Eagle Air ; N18ST L100 Saturn ;
some C-46 & DC3 wecks, 10+03 B707 WGAF ; TF-FLA DC8 LL.

The first a/c I saw at JFK were National 727 , Eastern L1011 and AA 747.

Pure nostalgy...

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 14 Sep 2003, 19:25

If Loftleidir operated DC8s, then maybe eventually those aircraft went to Icelandair, I was at an airport once and saw a DC8 in Icelandair colours, I took a photo but it didn't come out very well.

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 15 Sep 2003, 10:54

I was reading in an aircraft book that a Loftleidir DC8 crashed in Asia after it was loaned to another airline, sometime in the 1970s, so they can't all have gone to Icelandair.

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 11 Dec 2005, 18:59

Wow!

That was very interesting! Wish some posts could stay somewhere where everybody could notice them!

This is one of them! Nowadays aviation is rather boring I would say! Appart from the Ultra long haul flights no technical stop-over like U did! Shame for us aviation-lovers, good for everyone else!

Vincent

Post by **sn26567** » 13 Dec 2005, 23:01

Vinnie-Winnie wrote:Wish some posts could stay somewhere where everybody could notice them!

Well, if you found them, everyone else can!

fokker_f27 · Post by **fokker_f27** » 14 Dec 2005, 11:22

The continuation to New York Idlewild (I don(t know the code - it was not yet called JFK: he was still alive!) was more difficult because of the tiredness, but I still tried to look at everything: the icebergs, the frozen lakes of Northern Canada, etc

I know just that feeling... I have it all the time when I fly my last connecting flight from IAH-CRP. I sometimes see some mistery lights, I'm trying to figure out what they are, but I still don't know why I do that.

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 14 Dec 2005, 13:41

jan_olieslagers wrote:

As for Keflavik: yes it is a big airport, and quite a long way from Reykjavik. The city has a smaller airport nearer

I know about the smaller domestic airport nearer the centre of Reykjavik. I had several flights from here on the Fokker 27 (and latterly the Fokker 50) between 1989 and 1993. They were superb flights over the south coast of Iceland, the interior of Iceland and the west coast of Iceland.

regi · Post by **regi** » 14 Dec 2005, 17:17

I bow my head in respect.

Air_Lac · Post by **Air_Lac** » 20 Dec 2005, 20:29

Thanks André for that intersting (nowadays rather exotic) report!
Did you take pictures of that flight ?

Air_Lac

Post by **sn26567** » 23 Dec 2005, 10:35

Air_Lac wrote:Did you take pictures of that flight ?

Sorry I did not!

airazurxtror · Post by **airazurxtror** » 27 Dec 2005, 11:17

I also fondly remember Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines. I have not known their DC6, but in the seventies, I used to go to NYC-JFK with their DC8-63.

At that time, the gang of IATA carriers imposed the same (very high) fare for all carriers on the same route (Nowadays, it is unlawful and would be prosecuted). On the BRU-NYC route, the IATA gangsters, sorry : members, were Sabena and Pan American Airways (unable to cope with the concurrence after the deregulation, both have since then diappeared).

A few carriers flying from somewhat exotic countries were non-IATA and offered fares that ordinary people like me could afford.
Amongst them, Loftleidir flew LUX-REK/KEF-NYC/JFK (and, later, CHI/ORD).
LUX-REK/KEF took about 3 hours. A one-hour refuelling stop allowed the passengers a visit to the duty-free shop well stocked with wool and fur clothes !
It was also possible to make a one-day stop-over in Iceland, with a guided tour of the city and a night in the Loftleidir hotel, just besides the small airport of Reykjavik.
REK/NYC took from 5 to 6 hours.

I have made a few return trips between 1971 and 1976, with DC8-63 N8631, N8639, N8641, N8642, N896OT and TF-FLB (which was ex-N8631, I think).

At that time, an associated company, International Air Bahamas also flew from Luxemburg with low fares to Nassau. I made the trip once on DC8-63 N8630. From Nassau, it was only a short hop to Miami, with an Eastern 727 or a Bahamasair BAC 1-11...

PH-RVG · Post by **PH-RVG** » 09 Jan 2006, 21:02

My first flight to New York Idlewild in the late 60's was with a KLM DC-8 (not yet the stretched version) and because the plane was full and we had a lot of headwind, we had to make a technical unplanned re-fuelling stop in Gander (Newfoundland).
At that time Gander was huge with lots of very exotic Russian and Cuban planes that needed refuelling between the USSR and Cuba and the US airspace and airports were closed to them (cold war and all that).
It was in the dark and us, passengers, hang around Gander for a few hours.
Special experience.

Rob