Non-MIACO DC-3s

Since this introduction was first written, a number of changes have occurred.

This section originally listed DC-3s that visited Malta after MIACO went into voluntary liquidation in February 1985. I have now expanded this section to include other DC-3s sightings, irrespective of year. The previous system of grouping the aircraft by country region (Africa, Europe, etc.) has now been discarded, and aircraft are now listed simply in order of registration. A registration in bold red text is a recent addition.

This list is comprehensive, but, as with other data on this web site, is not to be taken as being the last word on the subject, as research may yield further DC-3 visits. Sources of information have been Malta Aviation Society records, loan of log books by fellow enthusiasts, and the Custom Files at the National Archives at Rabat.

Initially, a list of 89 DC-3s listed in the chapter “Airline Operations; Airliners in Malta 1946-1954” compiled by the late enthusiasts Carmel D’Amato and Mario Pace, and which appeared in the book Airliners in Malta, edited by David Spiteri Staines, and published by the Malta Aviation Museum Foundation, was used to start expanding this page.

In connection with the above paragraph, I had written in the original intro that “With Malta being a British colony, it comes as no surprise that, of the eighty-nine aircraft mentioned, 44 – just under 50% - were British-registered, from British colonies (Hong Kong) or had just obtained their independence from Great Britain (India).

However, the above mentioned authors had limted their research to an eight-year period, and since those words were written, the list has now grown to 427 different identities. However, it should be noted that 48 were seen with two different registrations, four with three, and one with four registrations. 7 would be placed on the US register and seen at MIACO.

This also explains why, in the original intro, I had written that “Contrary to what happened after MIACO set up shop in Malta in 1967 – when the majority of DC-3s seen were US-registered * – in the eight-year period which the authors covered, no American DC-3s were recorded.”

It was therefore indeed ironic that the first N registered DC-3 to be recorded would be the well known N565 in 1956. This was followed by N2615 in 1959 (also seen in 1973) and N7654 in 1960, which would be seen at MIACO as N3102Q.

No more US-registered would be seen until the establishment of MIACO in 1967, and ironically, after the closure of this company, the majority of DC-3s seen would again be US-registered ones (along with a couple each from France and Canada, and one from South Africa.

British registered DC-3s remained the most frequent at 185, or approx 43.3%, followed by South African examples, 39 (9.1%), and 28 Dutch Dakotas (6.6%).

Surprisingly enough, despite so many surplus DC-3s being available in the immediate post-war period, a number of DC-2s made an appearance, both on delivery and passenger flights. As the fore-runner of the DC-3, it was deemed appropriate to include them on this page, and are to be found at the beginning of the table.

* Of the 44 different airframes known to have visited MIACO, a total of 36 (or close to 82%) carried a US registration.