May 20, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 03, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 19: The Pakistan Navy (PN) has acquired three Fokker aircraft from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) along with spares for $1.2 million. PN spokesman Capt Siddiq told this correspondent that the acquired aircraft would be cannibalised to support other Fokker aircraft in the PN’s inventory.

PN has a fleet of five Fokker F-27-200s in its 27 Maritime Squadron. Three of them were modified for special operations, while the remaining two were used for transport purposes.

Fokker aircraft, inducted in the PN fleet in 1982, share a major burden of PN’s tactical and operational missions in the Indian Ocean.

PIA had decided to ground its remaining five Fokker aircraft after the fatal Multan crash of one of these turbo-props, but insisted that the aircraft were fit to fly. The airline had then replaced them with ATR 42-500. Most of these Fokkers were manufactured in the early to mid-1960s.

The PIA management started searching for a buyer but before it could find one, another Fokker was lost while parked at the Karachi airport under another aircraft which fell over it during a storm late last year.

Left with four aircraft for sale, PIA also offered 16 Dart engines, propellers, F-27 spares, and tools and test equipment to prospective buyers. Two of the acquired aircraft had already reached the PNS Mehran, while the third would soon be shifted there.