ZS-DVJ landing on Warmbad (Transvaal, South Africa), date unknown.

It must have been adventurous to land 'the Queen of the Skies' on such primitive airfields!
Photo courtesy © South African Airways Museum Society

ZS-DVJ reappears when the dust settles !

Ralph Pettersen (of ConnieSurvivors.com) suggested: "the date of the pictures at Warmbad is probably 09Oct1971, the day of the last flight of this great aircraft took place."

Photo courtesy © South African Airways Museum Society.

Colour instamatic photos, probably taken around 1972 or 1973.

History of ZS-DVJ c/n 1042

• Current registration - ZS-DVJ
• Delivered to Lufthansa January 1958 as L1649A D-ALOL
• Leased to World Airways October 1962 to February 1964 as N45520
• To Trek Airways April 24, 1964 as ZS-DVJ
• Leased to South African Airways May to September 1965
• To Safari Travel Ltd and leased to Luxair May 18, 1967 as LX-LGX
• Returned to Trek Airways June 1968 as ZS-DVJ
• Retired by Trek April 1969 and stored at Johannesburg, South Africa
• To W.J. Pelser July 27, 1971 and certificate renewed for a one-time flight to Wonderboom Airport, Warmbad South Africa on October 9, 1971
• Plans for cafe did not materialize
• To Die Afrikaanse Taal-en Kultuurvereniging 1973 and displayed at Klein Kariba, near Warmbad by April 1974
• Later used as boardroom at factory near Klein Kariba
• To South African Airways for preservation in 1978
• Dismantled May 1979 and transported, by road, to Johannesburg Airport arriving on May 23, 1979
• To allow for ground shipment, the one-piece wing was cut off the aircraft, which precludes it from flying again
• Restoration began February 1984 and was completed in time for SAA's Open Day on April 30, 1988
• On display at the SAA Museum at Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg in Trek Airways color scheme
• Painted by SAA in Trek Airways colors in February 2004
• The museum moved the aircraft, by road, to Rand Airport in Germiston, South Africa (2017)
• See updates on the restoration by the SAA Museum further down this page

Source: www.conniesurvivors.com/ZS-DVJ.htm as per May 2005.

During 2017 disassembly was restarted to move L.1649A ZS-DVJ from OR Tambo Airport to the museum.
The aircraft is owned by the South African Airways Museum Society (SAAMS) and disassembly began in mid-2011, with the intent of moving the aircraft by road to the museum’s home base at nearby Rand Airport.
Unable to continue the disassembly at the SAA facility, the aircraft was towed across the airport to Denel Aviation on 12May12.
Disassembly continued in 2013 and into 2014 with the engines, empennage and other components being removed and transported to Rand.
The project sees updates on the museum’s website:
www.saamuseum.co.za/component/content/article/99.html

The TREK-titles of Trek Airways can still be read on the tail.
Erik Eriksson wrote: "These are photos of where the plane was parked, sadly, on its sandy landing strip. The exact locality I think was called Klein (EN=Little) Kariba, which used to be what they call in South Africa a "pleasure resort" a kind of a motel style holiday resort with a few pools, tennis court, horse riding etc.
I went back there a few years ago to check things out, but of course no-one knows anything and what used to be the Little Kariba pleasure resort has now become a Christian Convention centre. No more pleasure and no more runway (that I could see)."

See for another image the Richard Nash / Bill Hill gallery on this website

Thanks Erik, for sharing these images

See more on Trek Airways here:
www.trekairways.co.za

In Oct.2017 ZS-DVJ was finally moved from Jo'burg IAP to Rand Airport! It was an arduous process of
preparation and execution of this remarkable transport. Congratulations to all involved.

Now this has been done, restoration can start in earnest!
For more information on the Starliner visit the SAA Museum Society Starliner website pages as follows: www.saamuseum.co.za/our-aircraft/71.html (History of ZS-DVJ) and
www.saamuseum.co.za/our-aircraft/99.html (ZS-DVJ relocation).
Visit www.saamuseum.co.za for progress and news updates!