 TAT'sde Havilland Dove CR-TAG "Manatuto" atBankstown Airport, Sydney, early 1970s | |
| Founded | 1939 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1975 |
| Operating bases | |
| Destinations | |
| Headquarters | Dili,Portuguese Timor |
Transportes Aéreos de Timor (transl. Air Transportation of Timor) orTAT was an airline of the then colony ofPortuguese Timor, headquartered inDili. It operated between 1939 and 1975.
TAT was founded as the colony's national airline in July 1939, several years beforeTransportes Aéreos Portugueses (transl. Portuguese Air Transportation), the national airline of the motherland.[1] It was headquartered inDili,[1] and its operating bases were atDili Airport andBaucau Airport.[2]
TAT served destinations within the colony and the neighbouring countries of Australia and theDutch East Indies /Indonesia.[3] It carried 15,000 passengers in 1964 and 20,000 in 1974.[4]
During 1940, TAT began flying a weekly service between Dili andKupang, in the thenDutch Timor, using ade Havilland Dragon Rapide wet-leased from Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KNILM), the airline of the then Dutch East Indies. Those services continued, for political reasons, even after April 1941, by which time TAT was six months behind in paying the lease fees and salaries of the pilot and mechanic.[5] In February 1942, civil aviation operations from Dili Airport were suspended after Japanese forces captured Dili.[6]
As of 1967, TAT was flying between Baucau andOecusse, and between Baucau andDarwin, Australia, with twode Havilland Doves.[7]
In 1969, TAT was operating flights to six destinations in Portuguese Timor, and once a week a charteredFokker F27 Friendship ofTrans Australia Airlines (TAA) flew the Baucau to Darwin route.[2]
In June 1973, the Indonesian government authorised TAT to start flying biweekly between Dili andKupang, which by then was inWest Timor in independent Indonesia. Later that year, TAT was to have begun operating regular services between Dili and Lisbon, but those flights never materialised.[8]: 52–53
In 1974 and 1975, TAT was operating scheduled domestic services from Dili toAtauro, Baucau,Maliana [id],Oecusse andSuai. The Baucau to Darwin services operated by TAA for TAT had become thrice-weekly, and TAT was also serving Kupang from Dili once a week, using aDouglas DC-3 chartered fromMerpati Nusantara Airlines.[3][9]
AfterCyclone Tracy devastated Darwin at the end of 1974, the flights between Baucau and Darwin were suspended for a time.[10] They finally came to an end on 7 August 1975, due to the fighting that had broken out in Portuguese Timor.[11]
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From the mid-1950s to 1975, the backbone of TAT's fleet was a pair of de Havilland Doves, which were small airliners powered by twin piston engines. They regularly visited Australia for scheduled maintenance, initially atBankstown Airport in Sydney, and in the 1970s atJandakot Airport in Perth.[12]
The first Dove, Series 1B CR-AGT "Manatuto", was built andregistered to TAT in 1952. The second one, Series 2A CR-AHT "OeCusse", also built in 1952, was added to the TAT fleet in 1955. Both were re-registered in 1959: CR-AGT as CR-TAG, and CR-AHT as CR-TAH.[12]
Also in 1959, TAT acquired ade Havilland Heron, which was a development of the Dove with a longer fuselage and four piston engines. A model 2D, it was registered as CR-TAI.[13] In January 1960, it crashed in the Timor Sea;[14] only small items of wreckage were recovered.[15]
As of 1967, TAT's fleet comprised the two Doves.[7] By 1969, three Austers had joined the fleet,[2] but they had gone by 1971.[16] At the time the airline was shut down following theIndonesian invasion of East Timor at the end of 1975, the fleet consisted of the two Doves and aBritten-Norman BN-2 Islander,[1] which had been acquired in late 1974.[8]: 104
One of the Doves, CR-TAG, escaped to Australia in late 1975. According to theDarwin Aviation Museum, which later became owner of the aircraft, CR-TAG was flown by Captain A. Ferreira from Atauro to Darwin on 19 October 1975.[17] Other sources state that CR-TAG's escape was accomplished under the guise of amedevac flight, with Timorese refugees on board.[12][18][19] TAT's second Dove, CR-TAH, is presumed to have been destroyed during the Indonesian invasion.[19] The airline's Islander was captured by the Indonesians and later placed into military service.[19]
The former TAT de Havilland Dove CR-TAG "Manatuto", which escaped the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in late 1975, is now on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum.[17][21] After being admitted to Australia as an 'aircraft in transit', it remained in Darwin and was ultimately declared to be an illegal import by the Australian government and impounded. Following extensive diplomatic communications between Australia, Portugal and Indonesia, it was donated by the Portuguese government to the museum in January 1978, and formally approved for import four months later. It then underwent a long conservation process prior to being placed on public display in December 1990.[17]
Media related toTransportes Aéreos de Timor at Wikimedia Commons
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