Letters to the editor
Information for the traveller
Dear Editor, Your feature on the retirement of a DC8-72CF N782SP (c/n 46013) belonging to the Christian humanitarian charity Samaritan’s Purse (Airliner World June 2025) encouraged me to send you a recent photograph of one of the now three DC-8 aircraft still flying.
I photographed DC-8-73F OB-2231P (c/n 46125) of Skybus Jet Cargo on short finals for Runway 30 at Miami International Airport in March 2025 on a flight from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was originally delivered to Air Canada in February 1970 as DC-8-63, registered CF-TIS with Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 engines and was subsequently re-engined as a DC-8-73 with CFMI CFM56-2C5 engines. After about 23 years of service for Air Canada as a passenger and later a cargo aircraft, it was operated by DHL and ASTAR Air Cargo before being transferred to the current operator in December 2017.