Hawaiian Farewell

For the past seven years, Hawaiian Airlines DC-9-50s have been a fixture at Mojave, and now the last one, N420EA, is being scrapped. The plane, c/n 47689, was originally delivered new to Hawaiian in 1975 as N639HA, but spent three years, from 1988 to 1991 flying for Eastern Airlines, before heading back to the Pacific (but keeping the EA registration for a souvenier). The photo on the right was taken on June 13th. The cockpit section has is in the upper left.

This last Hawaiian maiden didn't go without a moment of glory, however. Like a few others before her, she became a TV star for a fleeting moment, along with N603DC. With wings shorn, and a USAir DC-9-30 main cabin door standing in, a bomb was placed in a passenger seat by the producers of the TV show SmashLab to test bomb-proofing techniques, and tearing a nice hole in the side of the fuselage (right).

N420EA enjoying a Mojave sunrise in December, 2002

When all the Maidens were here.