VT-AUA  Douglas DC-3                                                (c/n  13245)

                                  

                                        This extremely rare photograph of a DC-3 in Tata Air Lines titling is from the Ben Manuel collection.
                                        Ben's grandfather worked for Air India in the immediate post-WW II era.  Research has shown that
                                        this aircraft was most probably VT-AUA.  Very few DC-3s were actually painted up as Tata, most
                                        going directly to Air India, since by 1946 Tata had changed its name to that of the national carrier.
                                        Since this photo was taken in 1947 and most of the other DC-3s for Tata had been written off by that
                                        time, the field is narrowed somewhat.   VT-AUA was a former C-47A-25-DK 42-93344.  It was
                                        written off in an accident at Calcutta's Dum Dum Airport on 1 September 1957.  It was actually struck
                                        by Airwork's Hermes G-AKFP which landed on runway 01L (instead of 01R) whilst the DC-3 was
                                        lining up for take off, possibly on a training or repositioning flight.  .Visibility was poor at the time and
                                        for some inexplicable reason the captain of the Hermes had his R/T turned so low he couldn't hear the
                                        warning.   The four crew of VT-AUA were all killed, although fortunately there were no passengers
                                        aboard at the time.