PRINAIR Herons - San Juan PR

[acklington]

For the Xmas/New Year holiday of 1979-80 I was fortunate to have a family holiday at father-in-law's, who worked in Puerto Rico and lived not far from San Juan International Airport. I've just been scanning and restoring some of the slides I took there, and thought I would show the Herons on this forum.

The reason being that many of these Herons have a previous British identity, and will have been a familiar sight to many during the 1960's and 70's, perhaps also being regular visitors to North West airports.


This is N561PR, and appeared to be the only one of the PRINAIR fleet to carry a name, "Amma". It was originally G-AORJ on the British register, and during the 1970's PRINAIR bought every DH Heron 2 that they could find, and had them converted to Continental 520 'flat' engines. There were other changes, such as integral airstairs, and prominent emergency exits mid-fuselage. In all, PRINAIR eventually operated 28 Herons, but three were lost in fatal accidents. Note also the 'cool dude' in red top and flares. He appears in other shots and must have been a ramp/turnaround supervisor. Not a day-glo jacket in sight anywhere!


N562PR, previously G-AREC


N564PR, previously G-ASVA, with N585PR (G-AOGO) behind


N564PR (G-ASVA) again


N568PR (G-ARUA), with American Airlines N8411 behind


N568PR (G-ARUA) again


N569PR, no previous UK reg, it's c/n is 14083. Note that it retains the 'flat' canopy of early Herons


N569PR (c/n 14083) again


N570PR (G-ANVH) with flat canopy, and N585PR (G-AOGO) behind


N570PR (G-ANVH) again


N573PR, no UK reg, c/n 14115


N573PR (c/n 14115) again


N576PR (G-AODY), with flat canopy - ooops! this one in 'black & white', but it was painted light grey so I didn't notice I'd selected the wrong image!


N577PR (G-AWDT) with DC-3 N722A beyond


N579PR (G-APMV). The close-in parking is no trick of the camera lens, they really did 'pack 'em in'. The turn-arounds were very fast (put Easyjet to shame!), and in a couple of hours most of the active fleet would rotate underneath the spectator open air viewing area.


N580PR (G-AOHB) with N583PR (G-BBYJ) close behind. The pilots used to taxi in at high speed before swinging in close to the one in front. I believe that on a couple of occasions the inevitable happened - an aircraft embedded in the pier, and on another occasion a fireball? Note also the main spectator viewing area behind, overlooking the main runway which goes from left to right across the background.


N580PR (G-AOHB) again


N581PR (G-ARTI)


N582PR (G-BBVI)


N584PR no previous UK reg, but ex Ghana Air Force 501


N586PR (G-BEPT), also with flat canopy.

A couple of the above are ex-Cimber Air of Denmark?

So that completes my PRINAIR Heron collection - a memorable and unique fortnight of spotting!

[Deleted]

Wow - that's the first time I've seen anything of Prinair since the early 80s! We used to transit through San Jose with the 748 occasionally and we'd see them in Tortola (BVI) regularly because it was the easiest way to get there. I think they had more than 20 Herons at one time.

[Airbus A346]

Great thread and photos - I think virtually every Heron I saw in the late 60s / early 70s ended up with Prinair.

[ian531]

Great set of images

Thanks for posting

Ian

[ronturner]

Wow. Only just seen this. What a great set of pictures: not just the lovely Herons. (I still have my airfix 1/72 scale ) but the Islanders, DC-3 and other paraphernalia around. (is that a Beech 18 there as well?

[planemike]

Yes, Beech 18 also American Airlines 707s.........

[acklington]

Many thanks for the comments, and yes the backgrounds contain many 'goodies' that I also photographed.

I'm still working my way through my slide collection, gathering all the Puerto Rico photos together and restoring them.

So I could be persuaded to do another thread covering the rest, but you'll all need to stock up on boxes of tissues first!