September 1984 to
Museo Aeronáutico - Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya
CX-BJA - c/n 400 - a V.827 series Viscount
Uruguay registered
24 September 1984
Acquired from Primeras Lineas Uruguayas de Navegacion Aerea (PLUNA).
The aircraft remained stored at Carrasco Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay without titles or R-R Dart engines.
There were plans to dismantle the aircraft and transfer it 35 KM to a museum in the centre of Montevideo, Uruguay, but this was found to be impractical.
Primeras Lineas Uruguayas de Navegacion Aerea (PLUNA) continued to take care of the aircraft within their maintenance area.
It was used by visiting school children and also for ground instruction purposes.
June 1986
Noted stored along with CX-BIZ (C/N 316) outside a Carrasco Airport maintenance hangar. Both were still without engines.
Painted in the latest fleet livery
May 1990
Repainted in the latest Boeing 737 fleet livery by PLUNA and put on display next to the terminal building at Carrasco Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay.
By this time the R-R Dart engines and propellers had been re-installed.
15 November 2004
Due to the expansion of the airport the owners ordered that the aircraft should be moved to a different area, away from the PLUNA maintenance base.
March 2005
The aircraft was moved to a grassy area near the airport perimeter where it started to sink into the soft ground. It was still externally complete with engines and propellers.
During this storage period the aircraft was regularly vandalised and many of the interior fittings were stolen, particularly within the cockpit and cabin areas.
5 July 2012
Primeras Lineas Uruguayas de Navegacion Aerea (PLUNA) ceased operating on instructions from the Uruguayan Government due to employee strike action and mounting financial difficulties.
Museo Aeronáutico - Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya took legal action to claim the aircraft back from the Government owned PLUNA assets. This was successful.
20 May 2015
Aircraft transferred to a storage ramp area alongside PLUNA Boeing 737-200 CX-BON.
29 July 2017
Aircraft transferred to a more secure area controlled by the Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya (Uruguayan Air Force) Base 1 and parked outside the Museo Aeronáutico hangar.
Volunteers from the Asociación Amigos del Museo Aeronáutico together with the help of Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya (Uruguayan Air Force) personnel then started a slow process of restoring the interior of the aircraft.
2 & 3 October 2021
The aircraft interior was finally open to the public for the 'Heritage Day' (Día del Patrimonio) celebrations and contains many items on display relating to the history of PLUNA.
There are future plans to repaint the aircraft in an authentic PLUNA livery.
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