Madagascar Boneyard Massacre

Madagascar Boneyard Massacre

We wish all our friends, relations and their families a very Happy 2012.

Some years ago, we visited Antananarivo, the capital of that magnificent island Madagascar, for a viewing of a most extraordinary aircraft bone yard of the Malagasy Air Force.
(See Dakota Hunter Newsletter Madagascar, issued in 2009)
What we found at the AF base Ivato was a stunning mix of derelict Russian Antonovs, Mil helicopters, Mig-21 Jet fighters and five Dakotas/ C-47's. The graveyard reflected the military aviation career of 50 years of independence of this huge island, east of Africa in the Indian Ocean.
The Malagasy Air Force started in 1960 with the independence from the former French colonial rulers. The Dakotas came all in via this source, while the Russian aircraft arrived later in the 1970s, as the Malagasy Government opted for the formation of a Socialist Republic, (following Cuba etc.), that guaranteed massive military help from the USSR.

As we came to the island in 2008, we entered into an invisible labyrinth of Military Bureaucracy. Some Colonels we met had private agendas and blurred our view on the legal ownership of the aircraft. Intricate games and rivalry between fractions, so we finally left the island after a week of non-stop negotiating: it all came to no avail, we left empty handed.

The tense political situation on the island took a dramatic new turn a few months later
with massive riots and the civilian president ousted from the Administration. The Military took control over the situation and our efforts to re-open the dealings about the purchase of the five derelict Dakotas stalled for obvious reasons.
We were seriously interested to buy the cockpits for Museums that had shown keen interest, once we had found out about the historical backdrop of the aircraft. Furthermore, we wanted to buy the available wingtips for our own Avionart Company: as always, we are in short supply for the making of the authentic Dakota Wing Desk, our exclusive domain in vintage aviation collectables since more than ten years.

I kept contact with my local agent, who over 2009 en 2010 tried hard to stay in touch with the Military. He was very keen to promote the salvage and preservation of at least the Dakota cockpits. However, even he lost sight over the fast developments in the political arena of the island. One sad day some months ago, he woke up by a phone call from a friend. To his total dismay, he was told that the whole bone yard had been sold overnight to a local metal scrapper for instant clean up of the area. Worse, they had started that morning.

By the time that he arrived at the Ivato Air Force base, the demolition crew had started their destructive works. Most Mig and Antonov wings were already separated from the fuselages, and they worked their way into an unreal Dakota massacre with grinders and cutter torches.

What followed was a explosion of emails, picture transfers and telephone messaging, in which my friend informed me (in real time) of what happened, which parts were still intact and what he had to reserve and / or buy right away from that Madagascar horror scene.

Would it make sense to fly out there?
That would take at least two days via Paris. That was no real option, as by the time I would arrive, it probably would be all done and gone. Therefore, we kept talking over the web and telephone and tried to save the best parts of what seemed still intact.

The invaluable Dakota cockpits were badly split in random pieces, the precious "cocarde" decorations of French squadron emblems, that were painted on the cockpit sides (some authentic "nose art" left over's from the 1950's war in Indochina) were all torn apart and lost for the progeny.

What had happened? Someone in the military, probably not aware of our previously made offer, must have decided to exterminate all derelict aircraft. A deal was struck with the local scrapper and the day of doom had arrived now for a "Grande Finale": 50 years of history gone in a 3 days funeral BBQ party, in which some 18 vintage aircraft were to be chopped and grilled.

That is bad news, but frankly, we saw similar horror scenes happen in UK: 15 years ago in Cardiff, where an aviation museum went broke. I witnessed the chopping of some six historical aircraft; it is all in the money that can or cannot be found in time to stop such scene.

Fortunately, one man must have understood the irreversibility of such shredding act and got a wave of genuine historical appreciation; he decreed that the best of this corrosion corner collection was to be kept for preservation. With that wise decision, they saved two derelict aircraft from the pyre: one Douglas C-47 Dakota (with engines on) and one Antonov An-26 were kept intact for a future museum, bravo.

The final fate for all other aircraft from the Ivato AF base was the shredder team with their cutting torches.
As you can see, they first cut all larger chunks of aluminium into smaller pieces that are stuck upright in the makeshift smelting ovens in the field. Those primitive mini blast furnaces are made from loose red bricks, but are good enough to smelt the aluminium aircraft chunks into ingots, that you see at the front right side of the furnaces.
Those solidified tablets of recycled aluminium that come out of the furnace, are finally sold.
I presume that the ingots will end up in the same way as I saw in Bolivia years earlier.
They went to small workshops that fabricate simple household gear as pots, pans, spoons, knives and buckets for domestic use, very handy and welcome stuff in any third world society.

What we could save for our own business can be seen on the pictures, all taken by my friend from the island, with his camera.
Those pictures where taken in a chaotic situation. There were the Military that took souvenirs "free of charge" and hundreds of other "spectators", looking for that precious gem in between all the rubbish and debris spread over the field. The scene looked as if a mid air collision had taken place.

In the mean time, security guards hired by the scrapping company, tried to ward off all the "vultures", those who had no "picking rights". They sort of lost control in the ensuing frenzy over who had to be removed from the scene: by coincidence, they also hit my friend, who had just bought his "entry ticket", that gave him right to be on the site and make selections of parts, to be salvaged from the melting pot and to be purchased in our name.

We have pieces of cockpits, instrument panels, pilot seats and the best part of the hunt:
Four wingtips were saved from the massacre and are kept now in a local depot on the island. The transport to Rotterdam, NL is a time consuming and expensive operation, as the container first has to be moved to the nearest by seaport at 300 km from the Air Force base. No problem in USA or Europe, but here are other rules and new rulers. Believe me, that fact makes things more complicated, but further enriches the history of the Madagascar Dakota Wingtips. The desks, which will be made from those wingtips, surely have a stunning story to tell.

For more information, please check www.avionart.com or write us at info@avionart.nl

Best regards,

Hans Wiesman
Dakota Hunter.

P.S. For more information about what really happened out there in Madagascar, you should read my book

Dakota Hunter,
In search for a legend at the last frontiers

This book is to due to be published soon, and describes my twenty years of venturing into the remote jungles of the Amazon, the tundras of Alaska, the sabanas of Venezuela, the mountains of Yukon, Bolivia and Colombia.
A quest for the lost and the last DC-3s/ C-47s/ Dakotas and other vintage aircraft from the 1940s and 1950s.
Documented with most interesting pictures and stunning stories of dealings with captains, colonels, crooks and compadres.
If interested to be kept informed about the book's date of issue and publisher, please contact me at hans@avionart.nl.