Hello Folks,

I am intrigued with the above DC8 (c/n 45990) after an entry in Skyliner Aviation News indicated that OB-2059-P(supposed current registration) was being positioned from Kingman(IGM) to Miami(MIA) on 03 August 2020. Flightradar24 and FlightAware give sparse information on history although what flights are being tracked are using N807DH. According to the FAA register, N807DH was canceled on 08 November 2016(exported to Peru). Photos on several aviation related sites show this a/c with the OB-2059-P registration. Within the last 10 days, searching the ADS-B Exchange website by hex number AAFC31, this a/c flew as HVY213 on August 03(IGM-MIA), August 08(MIA-SDQ-MIA) and today routing MIA to possibly somewhere in South America. The ADS-B tracking stopped halfway between Puerto Rico and the northern coast of South America. Long story short here, can anyone who dabbles in South American aviation shed some insight on this oldie but goodie? Thanks.

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe another DC-8 for Samaritan's Purse? I know they are adding "new ones" and the other came from Peruvian Airlines/Skybus Cargo. Maybe it didn't really leave MIA?

As I understand the MIA-SDQ-MIA was actually an Amerijet flight operated by the DC-8. We have quite the interesting mix with at least 3 722s and 1-2 DC-8s operating on the NE side of MIA.

I was fortunate to snag this photo on one of its recent trips to MIA. All kinds of extra cargo being hauled in and out of MIA right now because of Covid.

balz18 wrote:

As I understand the MIA-SDQ-MIA was actually an Amerijet flight operated by the DC-8. We have quite the interesting mix with at least 3 722s and 1-2 DC-8s operating on the NE side of MIA.

I stand corrected on that flight as I mis-read my notes. Yes it was M6860 on 08 August 2020. Thanks.

I’m wondering where they found the pilots. Is there a DC-8 sim in the states? I’ve been sidelined for months I’ll go fly the thing.

balz18 wrote:

As I understand the MIA-SDQ-MIA was actually an Amerijet flight operated by the DC-8. We have quite the interesting mix with at least 3 722s and 1-2 DC-8s operating on the NE side of MIA.

I noticed that the other day and was delighted. It was like being back in the late 1990s seeing that ramp with DC-8s, 727s, and the most modern airplane there was an MD-11!

CATIIIevery5yrs wrote:

I’m wondering where they found the pilots. Is there a DC-8 sim in the states? I’ve been sidelined for months I’ll go fly the thing.

I believe ATI has a DC-8 simulator. That is necessary because Samaritan's Purse pilots need to keep their licenses current.

Good Day,
This same plane made a trip from MIA to POS (Trinidad) then flew from Trinidad (POS) to St. Vincent (SVD) then from St Vincent (SVD) back to Miami (MIA).
There are some photos of it online in a few Caribbean Aviation Groups.
I have gotten some shots of when it arrived here in St Vincent Yesterday (13-Aug-2020). They might get posted here on Airliners.net I am not 100% sure if I would.

Has the number of active DC-8s increased at all in recent months?

I don’t want to bump the old “active DC-8s” thread.

Amerijet is moving to more of an ACMI model, and is currently flying a number of flights on its 767-300s for DHL, the USPS and others. So its Island-Hoppers-With-An-Intercontinental-Jet services apparently need subservice from whomever Amerijet can hire. (If you look back at Amerijet's 767-300 utililzation over the past year, it's incredible, particularly on the Island Hoppers. I don't know how they keep those 767s flying, pounding them with stop after stop after stop all day and all night.) Now that they are more-appropriately employed, I guess Amerijet contracted out for coverage of its Island routes.

But if Amerijet is down to Skybus Peru as their "best" option, that tells you something about freighter availability right now.

However, it's fun as heck to see that DC8 in the air. Those Skybus pilots may get banned from countries from time to time, and they may juuuuuuust get it in the air before the runway runs out, but Dang! that plane looks great!

Anybody know whose 727s are also occupying the Corrosion Corner at MIA? I was wondering why DHL went to an ATI 757Combi for its CVG-DTW run this week (which can only carry 10 cans) if Kalitta II or someone had a 727 available. (DHL has now replaced the Combi with an Atlas 762.)

CATIIIevery5yrs wrote:

I’m wondering where they found the pilots. Is there a DC-8 sim in the states? I’ve been sidelined for months I’ll go fly the thing.

On a recent Samaritan's Purse flight to IAD, controller from the tower asked the same question. The pilot answered that they are all ex DHL pilots.

dcaviation wrote:

CATIIIevery5yrs wrote:

I’m wondering where they found the pilots. Is there a DC-8 sim in the states? I’ve been sidelined for months I’ll go fly the thing.

On a recent Samaritan's Purse flight to IAD, controller from the tower asked the same question. The pilot answered that they are all ex DHL pilots.

They bought Airborne Express, which was spun off to become ABX. ATI is a sister company.

Good news! N807DH is currently in the air, left POS and heading to MIA.

wjcandee wrote:

Amerijet is moving to more of an ACMI model, and is currently flying a number of flights on its 767-300s for DHL, the USPS and others. So its Island-Hoppers-With-An-Intercontinental-Jet services apparently need subservice from whomever Amerijet can hire. (If you look back at Amerijet's 767-300 utililzation over the past year, it's incredible, particularly on the Island Hoppers. I don't know how they keep those 767s flying, pounding them with stop after stop after stop all day and all night.) Now that they are more-appropriately employed, I guess Amerijet contracted out for coverage of its Island routes.

But if Amerijet is down to Skybus Peru as their "best" option, that tells you something about freighter availability right now.

However, it's fun as heck to see that DC8 in the air. Those Skybus pilots may get banned from countries from time to time, and they may juuuuuuust get it in the air before the runway runs out, but Dang! that plane looks great!

Anybody know whose 727s are also occupying the Corrosion Corner at MIA? I was wondering why DHL went to an ATI 757Combi for its CVG-DTW run this week (which can only carry 10 cans) if Kalitta II or someone had a 727 available. (DHL has now replaced the Combi with an Atlas 762.)

The 727 flights are being operated by Kalitta Charters 2 and IFL.

tb727 wrote:

The 727 flights are being operated by Kalitta Charters 2 and IFL.

Thanks! Yeah, when nobody answered I just plugged in all the tails I knew for the Kalitta 727s and the IFL 727s, thinking it must be one of them, and found the flights. I did wonder if there were any others, though.

Also interesting to me that the Amerijet SJU volume is such that one 727 run per day isn't enough (on some days at least).

So fun!

AC1 wrote:

Good news! N807DH is currently in the air, left POS and heading to MIA.

I just saw this very aircraft land on RWY 9 at MIA on the Miami Airport PTZ webcam. It made the long and winding taxi across MIA to AmeriJet's ramp at the NE corner of the airport. Nice to see an old "Diesel 8" still working.

I believe this aircraft was in GSO last year I heard samaritans was buying it, but never heard anything further.

wjcandee wrote:

tb727 wrote:

The 727 flights are being operated by Kalitta Charters 2 and IFL.

Thanks! Yeah, when nobody answered I just plugged in all the tails I knew for the Kalitta 727s and the IFL 727s, thinking it must be one of them, and found the flights. I did wonder if there were any others, though.

Also interesting to me that the Amerijet SJU volume is such that one 727 run per day isn't enough (on some days at least).

So fun!

Yeah 724CK was flying the run but went in for heavy check, she just turned 50 last week!

aemoreira1981 wrote:

dcaviation wrote:

CATIIIevery5yrs wrote:

I’m wondering where they found the pilots. Is there a DC-8 sim in the states? I’ve been sidelined for months I’ll go fly the thing.

On a recent Samaritan's Purse flight to IAD, controller from the tower asked the same question. The pilot answered that they are all ex DHL pilots.

They bought Airborne Express, which was spun off to become ABX. ATI is a sister company.

Yes but these are most likely Astar Air Cargo guys which would have originally been DHL and they used the DHL callsign all the way up to the end in 2012 for Astar. Those were all of the DC-8-73's. The ABX DC-8-61/63's were gone long before that and I'd guess they all moved to the 767's.

N1011 wrote:

I believe this aircraft was in GSO last year I heard samaritans was buying it, but never heard anything further.

No, I don't think so. That was OB-2158-P, and Samaritans bought it and is N873SJ. It is stored somewhere, no longer in GSO.

wjcandee wrote:

Anybody know whose 727s are also occupying the Corrosion Corner at MIA?

I drove the length of the north side of MIA last night and don’t remember seeing any 727s. Were these by the Commercial Jet hangar? There definitely weren’t any airplanes where Corrosion Corner used to be.

gsoflyer wrote:

N1011 wrote:

I believe this aircraft was in GSO last year I heard samaritans was buying it, but never heard anything further.

No, I don't think so. That was OB-2158-P, and Samaritans bought it and is N873SJ. It is stored somewhere, no longer in GSO.

Flightaware and Flightradar24 don’t show any recent flights for it, but I swear I saw N873SJ displayed on the airport’s flight information page. I think N873SJ and OB-2059-P are the two DC-8s flying for Amerijet right now.

I don’t know why the tracking sites are showing the old reg but it’s indeed wearing OB-2059-P right now.

Amerijet is also using an IFL Group 727 now.

OB1504 wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

Anybody know whose 727s are also occupying the Corrosion Corner at MIA?

I drove the length of the north side of MIA last night and don’t remember seeing any 727s. Were these by the Commercial Jet hangar? There definitely weren’t any airplanes where Corrosion Corner used to be.

gsoflyer wrote:

N1011 wrote:

I believe this aircraft was in GSO last year I heard samaritans was buying it, but never heard anything further.

No, I don't think so. That was OB-2158-P, and Samaritans bought it and is N873SJ. It is stored somewhere, no longer in GSO.

Flightaware and Flightradar24 don’t show any recent flights for it, but I swear I saw N873SJ displayed on the airport’s flight information page. I think N873SJ and OB-2059-P are the two DC-8s flying for Amerijet right now.

I don’t know why the tracking sites are showing the old reg but it’s indeed wearing OB-2059-P right now.

Amerijet is also using an IFL Group 727 now.

It's funny, Amerijet swears up & down that they don't have any more B722's, but almost every evening one flies a MIA-SJU cargo run. I guess they hide it in the maintenance hangar until load time? Is it like the beloved, old pickup truck that a farmer keeps around for old times sake?

FLALEFTY wrote:

It's funny, Amerijet swears up & down that they don't have any more B722's, but almost every evening one flies a MIA-SJU cargo run. I guess they hide it in the maintenance hangar until load time? Is it like the beloved, old pickup truck that a farmer keeps around for old times sake?

I ran one of the flight numbers and pulled the reg. from flightradar. IFL metal.

AJT8433 - N281FL

For the folks who just raised questions about the 727s:

As discussed above, Amerijet is currently using subservice from IFL and from Kalitta Charters II (and others) to cover some of its Island business, while it uses some of its 767s to take advantage of ACMI flying opportunities presented by its transition to more ACMI services.

Some of the SDQ and SJU services from MIA are for the moment being flown by 727s from those two carriers. Right now, N726CK is the one from KII. Recently, N729CK and N724CK were also used, but one of those is now in maintenance and one is doing other things. On the IFL side, as noted, they are presently using N281FL.

FLALEFTY wrote:

OB1504 wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

Anybody know whose 727s are also occupying the Corrosion Corner at MIA?

I drove the length of the north side of MIA last night and don’t remember seeing any 727s. Were these by the Commercial Jet hangar? There definitely weren’t any airplanes where Corrosion Corner used to be.

gsoflyer wrote:

No, I don't think so. That was OB-2158-P, and Samaritans bought it and is N873SJ. It is stored somewhere, no longer in GSO.

Flightaware and Flightradar24 don’t show any recent flights for it, but I swear I saw N873SJ displayed on the airport’s flight information page. I think N873SJ and OB-2059-P are the two DC-8s flying for Amerijet right now.

I don’t know why the tracking sites are showing the old reg but it’s indeed wearing OB-2059-P right now.

Amerijet is also using an IFL Group 727 now.

It's funny, Amerijet swears up & down that they don't have any more B722's, but almost every evening one flies a MIA-SJU cargo run. I guess they hide it in the maintenance hangar until load time? Is it like the beloved, old pickup truck that a farmer keeps around for old times sake?

That's interesting cause one flew to GSO recently, saw it fly over on approach and ran in to see what it was because there were no visual titles on it.

gsoflyer wrote:

FLALEFTY wrote:

It's funny, Amerijet swears up & down that they don't have any more B722's, but almost every evening one flies a MIA-SJU cargo run. I guess they hide it in the maintenance hangar until load time? Is it like the beloved, old pickup truck that a farmer keeps around for old times sake?

That's interesting cause one flew to GSO recently, saw it fly over on approach and ran in to see what it was because there were no visual titles on it.

I believe that was USA Jet.