Compañía Dominicana de Aviación, usually shortened to Dominicana, was an airline from the Dominican Republic, serving as flag carrier of the country.
[edit] History
Dominicana was established in 1944 in an effort to create a national airline aiming at the large number of Dominican citizens who emigrated to the United States of America, Puerto Rico and Spain. The initial fleet consisted of Douglas DC-3 and DC-6 aircraft. During the 1950s, Dominicana launched a domestic route network to places like Puerto Plata, La Romana and Santiago de los Caballeros, acquiring Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando and Aviation Traders Carvair airplanes. In the 1960s, Dominicana renewed its fleet with the more modern Douglas DC-8, DC-9 and Boeing 727. The route network was further expanded with more destinations in the Americas and the Caribbean during the 1970s. At its height in the 1980s, Dominicana operated Boeing 747 aircraft to European destinations like Madrid and Frankfurt.
At the end of the decade, the airline's economic situation worsened due to a poorly led management and the heavy maintenance costs of its ageing fleet. Subsequently, the fleet and network were scaled back, leaving only the original routes like New York, Miami and San Juan. In an effort to save costs, Dominica began to operate leased aircraft (mostly Boeing 727, but also an Airbus A300) instead of owned ones. Nonetheless, the financial situations further worsened into the 1990s, which coincided with a negative customer reputation (like lost or delayed luggage). In order to be able to operate newer aircraft which required less maintenance expenses, and to cut crew costs, Dominicana leased Boeing 737-300s and a Boeing 757-200 (including the flight crews) from Mexican low-cost airline TAESA. Further aircraft were leased from Express One International, Atlantic Aviation and Carnival Air Lines. During Christmas of 1994, many Dominicana VFR passengers got stranded when the airline was not able to provide the necessary funding for operating the aircraft the passengers had already been booked on. As a consequence to this abysmal publicity, in early 1995 the government of the Dominican Republic decided to shut down the airline. Originally only planned as a temporarily measure, the company never became operational again and was officially dissolved in 1999.[1]
[edit] Destinations
In 1984, Dominicana offered scheduled flights to the following destinations:[2]
- Aruba
- Dominican Republic
- Haiti
- Netherlands Antilles
- Puerto Rico
- United States of America
- Venezuela
Over the years, Dominicana operated the following aircraft types:[3][4]
Dominicana fleet development
| Aircraft |
Total |
Registrations |
| A300-200 |
3 |
OY-CNA, OY-CNL, N216PA |
| ATL-98A |
2 |
HI-168, HI-172 |
| BAC One-Eleven |
1 |
G-AVGP |
| Boeing 707-300 |
3 |
HI-442, N706PA, N716PA |
| Boeing 720 |
1 |
N421MA |
| Boeing 727-100 |
5 |
HI-312CT, N15512, N7421U, HI-212CT, HK-727 |
| Boeing 727-200 |
10 |
N8858E, HI242CT, HI-452, HI-606CA, HI-612CA, HI-616CA, HI-617CA, HI-629CA, HI-630CA, HI-637CA |
| Boeing 737-400 |
1 |
n/a |
| Boeing 747-100 |
1 |
HI-472 |
| Boeing 757 |
1 |
n/a |
| Douglas DC-3 |
2 |
HI-6, HI-7 |
| Douglas DC-4 |
5 |
HI-16, HI-18, HI-36, HI-39, HI-46 |
| Douglas DC-6 |
5 |
HI-59, HI-83, HI-92, HI-251, HI-292CT |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-8 |
1 |
N72488 |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9 |
2 |
HI-177, N8500 |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-10 |
3 |
N902JW, XA-SYE, N143US |
[edit] Livery
The most common Dominicana livery consisted of a metallic silver fuselage, with red and blue cheatlines tail painting, representing the colors in the Dominican flag. The Dominicana titles was written in black letters above the passenger windows.
[edit] Accidents and incidents
- On 11 January 1948, a Dominicana Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered HI-6) crashed into a mountain near Yamasá in bad weather conditions, killing all 30 passengers and two crew members on board, amongst them the baseball team of B.B.C Santiago. The aircraft had been on a scheduled flight from Barahona to Santiago de los Caballeros.[5]
- On 17 July 1958 at 10:16 UTC, a Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando cargo aircraft (registered HI-16) operating Dominicana Flight 402 from Ciudad Trujillo (today's Santo Domingo) to Miami crashed shortly after take-off due to an engine problem, killing the two pilots on board.[6]
- On 23 June 1969 at 15:42 local time, a Dominicana Aviation Traders Carvair cargo aircraft (registered HI-168), which was operating Flight 401 from Miami to Santo Domingo, crashed shortly after take-off from Miami International Airport, killing all four persons on board, as well as six people on the ground. The aircraft had suffered an engine failure during take-off run, on which the pilots were not able to react accordingly.[7][8]
- On 15 February 1970 at approximately 18:30 local time, a Dominicana Douglas DC-9 (registered HI-177) crashed into the sea some 3 kilometres off Santo Domingo, killing all 97 passengers and 5 crew members on board, making it the worst accident in the history of the Dominican Republic. The aircraft had just departed Las Américas International Airport for a scheduled flight to San Juan, when it suffered a dual engine failure.[9]
- On 5 September 1993, a Dominicana Boeing 727-200 (registered HI-617CA) was destroyed in a fire at Las Américas Airport. The then 20 years old aircraft had been operating a scheduled flight from San Juan to Santo Domingo carrying 98 passengers and 7 crew members, when the cabin filled with smoke during disembarkation, which was caused by a fire due to electrical overheating. All people involved managed to leave the aircraft before it was completely engulfed by the flames.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ List of airlines of the Dominican Republic at airlineupdate.com
- ^ Dominicana 1984 timetable
- ^ Dominicana de Aviacion Historic Fleet at the Aero Transport Database
- ^ Dominicana fleet listing (newer aircraft only) at airfleets.net
- ^ Dominicana 1948 crash at the Aviation Safety Network
- ^ 1958 Dominicana crash at the Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Dominicana Flight 402 at the Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Flight 401 Official NTSB Accident Report
- ^ Dominicana 1970 crash at the Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Dominicana 1993 incident at the Aviation Safety Network
