Commando 42-3583

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-35-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-3583

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 26716

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU356

FATE: Written off

  December 1943

  42-3583 - CURTISS-WRIGHT CORPORATION (USA)

13 December 1943

Transferred from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY to the one in Louisville, KY.

  December 1943 to January 1944

  42-3583 - USAAF (USA)

31 December 1943

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Louisville, KY.

  January 1944 to unknown date

  39529 - US MARINE CORPS (USA)

17 January 1944

Transferred as R5C-1.

By August 1944

Assigned to VMR-952 based in Emirau, Bismarck Archipelago.

April 1945

Assigned to Homeland Defense Network (HDN), MAG-21 based in Guam, Mariana Islands.

May 1945

Assigned to VMR-953 based at MCAS Ewa, HI.

June 1945

Assigned to MAG-35 Service Squadron (Servron-35).

October 1945

Assigned to NAS San Diego, CA.

27 June 1946

Reconditionned at NAS San Diego, CA.

26 July 1946

Stored at NAS Litchfield Park, AZ.

  Unknown date to 1959

  N4097A - MARCO INDUSTRIES INC. (USA)

Unknown date

Purchased from US Navy.

  1959 to September 1970

  N4097A - L. B. SMITH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION (USA)

1959

Purchased.

[this Commando may have had another owner toward the end of the mentionned period, as L. B. Smith is known to have gone out of business in the mid-1960's]

  September 1970 to September 1974

  HI-197 - AEROMAR (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

September 1970

Purchased.

Unknown date

Withdrawn from use and stored in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Right: HI-197 in Santo Domingo for Aeromar.
Photo credit: EX/ZX / Flickr

  September 1974 to June 1977

  HI-197 - JET ENGINE SUPPORT INC. (USA)

September 1974

Purchased.

Left: HI-197 on 16 April 1976, still stored engineless in Santo Domingo and wearing Aeromar titles.
Photo credit: Tony Pearce / Air Britain

  June 1977 to September 1980

  HI-197 - ALAS DEL CARIBE (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

June 1977

Purchased.

20 September 1980

Damaged beyond repair after crashing into the sea while trying to land at night in Rio Hacha, Colombia (0/6 fatalities). The Commando was conducting a drug-smuggling flight between Santo Domingo and Rio Hacha.

[Commando quoted by BAAA as belonging to Aerolineas Argo at the time of the crash]

Below, left: HI-197 in Santo Domingo, 24 June 1978. Aeromar paint scheme remains, but no titles are worn.
Photo credit: Mick Bajcar / Air Britain

Below, right: HI-197 taxiing for departure from San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin airport in Puerto Rico in June 1979.
Photo credit: Mick Bajcar / Air Britain