Planenutz From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1267 posts, RR: 12 Posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 4550 times:
A few years back I remember hearing stories of banks/leasing companies repossessing and/or impounding aircraft for nonpayment. I beleive this happened at LHR with Varig, Ghana Airways, an dothers. It also happnede dwith the old Canada 3000 at Mancheser, and Air Zimbabwe at LGW.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. First hand stories would be interesting.
My question is: How exactly is this operationalized? Who essentially prevents the crew from taking off? Is law enforcement involved?
XJETFlyer From United States of America, joined Apr 2007, 326 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 4534 times:
Well this is my field. We repossess almost anything including aircraft of all sizes. Each case varies and depends on the situation. Some times we use a writ of sequestration. Sometimes we contact the airlines and advise them of the situation and at that point we make arrangements on taking the equipment at that point. Unlike repossessing a vehicle, Large aircraft and large vessels are treated different. We use Ellington Field in Houston to store aircraft on a temporary basis.
Unfortunately we can not tell you who we have repossessed from because of legal matters involved. I can tell you we have repossessed Police helicopters before and small planes all the way up to larger ones. We do sub contract with pilots to assist us under our insurance policy.
While we hate repossessing Med Helicopters and Police Helicopters, it's a needed service. We won't gho in to media aircraft....
Ssides From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 4059 posts, RR: 23 Reply 2, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 4451 times:
Oftentimes the banks involved can contact the FAA directly and have them deregister the aircraft as well.
CF6PPE From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 4035 times:
In the early 1970's, EAL sold two DC8's to a small European charter airline. When the payments stopped coming in, EAL decided to take possession of the said frames.
One frame was parked at a popular Mediterranean vacation destination. EAL started a conversation with the charter airline telling them that EAL had a charter available at MIA. The airline needed fuel money, so EAL helped the airline with fuel money. The DC8 was ferried to MIA in anticipation of picking up the charter, at which time the DC8 was brought onto the EAL ramp and backed up to the blast fence. When the charter crew deplaned,the EAL managers thanked the charter crew for bringing the frame back to MIA. So one down, one to go.
The second frame was parked at a European airport. EAL sent a DC8 Captain to determine if the second frame could be easily recovered. The Captain checked out the aircraft and decided that it could be safely flown to a nearby major airport. Two local crew were procured for the trip and a local operator provided a start. Once the DC8 was moved to the new location, a trip termination check was accomplished, the frame fueled, and readied for the return to MIA. Additional EAL crew joined the Captain and the frame was returned to MIA uneventful.
To make the story short, I've left out many of the details.
CF6PPE From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 4007 times:
In the 1970's, one of the iterations of Bahamas Air ceased operation. At the time Bahamas Air operated two or three BAC 1-11's. When the frames returned to MIA early in the afternoon, the owners of the leased frames took possession of the aircraft, had them fueled and flew the aircraft to Canada where they had storage and security facilities. By the time that the Bahamas Air creditors found out about the operation being ceased, the only thing left at MIA was several start carts, ladders and other minor items.
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