Commando 42-107292

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-41-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-107292

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 26979

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU619

FATE: Written off

  May 1944 to April 1946

  42-107292 - USAAF (USA)

2 May 1944

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.

28 May 1944

Assigned to ATC North African Wing.

Unknown date

Assigned to Karachi, Sindh, India.

Right: second from the front, 42-107292 parked at Chabua, Assam, India, unknown date.
Photo credit: Mike Bernardis / www.cbi-history.com

   April 1946 to June 1957

  42-107292 - INDIAN GOVERNMENT (INDIA)

10 April 1946

Purchased.

  June 1957 to September 1957

  N7865B - AIRCRAFT MODIFICATIONS INC. (USA)

6 June 1957

Purchased.

25 July 1957

Registered.

  September 1957

  N7865B - L & J TRADING COMPANY (USA)

September 1957

Purchased. [date uncertain]

16 September 1957

Departed on a ferry flight from India to Miami, FL.

23 September 1955

Arrived in Miami, FL from India.

  September 1957

  N7865B - CARIBBEAN AIRCRAFT & SUPPLY COMPANY (USA)

September 1957

Purchased. [date uncertain]

  September 1957 to May 1958

  N7865B - RANSA (RUTAS AEREAS NACIONALES SA) (VENEZUELA)

23 September 1957

Leased from Caribbean Aircraft & Supply Company.

  May 1958 to January 1959

  N7847B - MIAMI AIRLINES (USA)

7 January 1959

Purchased by R. W. Duff, owner of Miami Airlines, and U. E. Parodi.

  February 1959 to unknown date

  CU-C807 - AEROVIAS Q (CUBA)

February 1959

Purchased.

  Unknown date to August 1961

  CU-T607 - CUBANA (CUBA)

Unknown date

Transferred as Aerovias Q merged into Cubana.

9 August 1961

Damaged beyond repair near Havana, Cuba in a crash landing after being hijacked (3/53 fatalities).

Five minutes after takeoff from Havana Airport, five hijackers attempted to enter the flight deck. Two guards tried to stop the hijackers and shots were fired. During the struggle, the captain was killed as well as one hijacker and a guard. The copilot was able to complete an emergency landing in a sugar cane field. The undercarriage was sheared off and the airplanes came to rest. Four hijackers fled the scenes as the rest of the occupants were evacuated safely.

[Confusion exists regarding the actual fate of this Commando, and its exact registration - some sources quote it as being offered for sale in 1972, but this could have been the wreckage]

Left: Cuban newspaper La Nacion describes what is believed to be CU-T607's crash on 11 August 1961. Note that the airline is still quoted as Aerovias Q, which actually merged progressively into Cubana from 1959 to 1961.
Photo credit: La Nacion