Farewell to the TriStar

By Roger Thiedeman 

When Captain Wendell Kelaart parked the TriStar at Abu Dhabi and shut down its three Rolls-Royce engines for the last time, he ended a 19-year relationship between TriStars and Sri Lankan air travel. And, like many other relationships, it was a bitter-sweet one. 

Over a period spanning nearly two decades, Air Lanka's TriStars have been the flagships of the fleet, the airline's most recognisable asset (that famous 'Monara' logo aside!). For the most part, it was an airplane popular with pilots, engineers and passengers alike. Aircrew enjoyed its easy, vice-free handling. It was a 'pilot-friendly' aircraft, they said. Passengers welcomed the wide-body spaciousness and comfort.

Occasionally, however, things went wrong. Air Lanka was an airline with a vast route network but a numerically small fleet of aging aircraft. So, when inevitable mechanical malfunctions occurred, schedules and punctuality were thrown into chaos. The TriStars were blamed, the "Taste of Paradise" suddenly turned sour, and local wags dubbed the airline "Usually Late" — in a cynical twist of its two-letter code 'UL'! To Air Lanka's credit, however, they always placed a premium on safety over punctuality.

It all began in late 1980 when Air Lanka, barely one-year-old, was facing competition from other international carriers with modern airplanes. Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were also booming, generating demand for more long-haul capacity than the company's two Boeing 707s provided. Focusing their attention on wide-body aircraft, Air Lanka chose the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar.

Built at the Lockheed complex in Palmdale, California, the TriStar already had a 'family connection' with Sri Lankan aviation. Between 1956 and 1961, Air Ceylon operated three other Lockheed products successively: a 749 Constellation, a 1049G Super Constellation and an Electra turboprop — all leased from, and flown on behalf of Air Ceylon by, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The first L-1011 (pronounced "Ten-Eleven") to wear Air Lanka livery was leased from Air Canada in November 1980. It was a TriStar 1 model, followed in May 1981 by another of the same type, from the same source. They were the first of 16 TriStars to serve Air Lanka over the next 19-plus years, although the airline rarely operated more than five or six at one time. Some L-1011s — like the two long-range, short-fuselage TriStar 500s — were bought outright. Others were obtained on long-term leases (notably from Air Canada and Royal Jordanian Airlines), and yet others leased for brief periods, subject to the demands of maintenance schedules and passenger traffic. One such TriStar, leased by Air Lanka from Air Canada for only two weeks in 1982, later went on to a spectacular new career. After a period of semi-retirement in the Arizona desert, it was modified as an aerial platform for launching small satellites into orbit from the fringes of outer space.

Right from its inception, even before Lockheed's prototype L-1011 could fly, the TriStar was causing headaches. Excessive, unforeseen development costs dragged both Lockheed and engine supplier Rolls-Royce to the brink of bankruptcy. Only last-minute intervention by the American and British governments respectively, with huge injections of funds, saved these two industrial giants from extinction.

When the first TriStar eventually took off on its maiden flight on November 16, 1970, all problems were forgotten. Here, it seemed, was another good Lockheed airplane, with potential for commercial success in airlines around the world. As it turned out, only 250 TriStars were built between 1970 and 1983, a relatively small number compared to outputs of rival manufacturers Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas. Significantly, however, the TriStar has proved to be one of the safest jetliners ever, with only seven examples (less than 3% of total production) destroyed in accidents or acts of terrorism. 

On May 3, 1986, Air Lanka experienced its greatest setback when a TriStar 100 at Katunayake, preparing for a delayed departure to Male (Maldive Islands), was torn apart by a bomb concealed in a tool kit by LTTE saboteurs. Sixteen passengers and crew were killed, and another 41 seriously injured, on that sad Saturday morning.

Another of Air Lanka's TriStars took centrestage in a bizarre episode that, fortunately, had a happier ending. A charter flight from Colombo to Nagoya in May 1992 returned to Katunayake after passengers threatened violence towards the captain and crew. Members of the infamous Japanese Aum Shinri Kyo cult, the passengers vehemently objected to the presence in the economy cabin of two off-duty flight attendants, and demanded that they sit in the galley instead.

Emerging from the cockpit to reason with the cult members and their leader Shoko Asahara, Captain David Hawkes was immediately surrounded, then noisily and incessantly abused in a threatening manner. Back on the flightdeck, First Officer Errol Cramer sensed something was amiss and unobtrusively turned the TriStar back towards Colombo. When the aircraft finally touched down at Katunayake, the show of military muscle awaiting them ensured that the cult members disembarked meekly without further fuss.

My most memorable flight in an Air Lanka TriStar occurred in December 1991 whilst travelling from Australia to Sri Lanka on holiday with my family. The commander of our TriStar 500 was Captain Gihan 'GAF' Fernando, my good friend and former schoolmate. In fact, 'GAF' had specially rostered himself for this flight so that he could be our "personal pilot", as he put it! 

Nearing the end of our nine-hour nonstop journey from Melbourne, 'GAF' invited my two sons and me to the cockpit for the late-night approach and landing at Katunayake. But this was an approach with a difference. As a special treat, 'GAF' obtained permission from Air Traffic Control to deviate from his usual descent path into Colombo. 

From the vantage point of our jumpseats, we watched in fascination as clusters of lights, like pinpricks against the inky blackness, turned out to be Hambantota, Matara and Galle. A rapidly growing blur of illumination on the horizon soon became identifiable as the city of Colombo. Presently, we were roaring directly above Galle Road, picking out landmarks like Ratmalana airport, Mt. Lavinia Hotel, and the Parliamentary complex reposing in floodlit splendour on the Diyawanna Oya. 

As our low-flying TriStar thundered across the suburbs of Colombo a mere 1,500 feet below us, I noted the time (11.30 p.m.) and spared a thought for all those citizens whose slumbers we were disturbing!

Just like that flight, Sri Lankan-operated TriStars are now just a memory. The passage of time and the inexorable march of progress combined to ensure that their days as frontline passenger jets were numbered. That was even before new owners took over Air Lanka, bringing a new name, new logo, new livery, new image and an ever-increasing fleet of ultramodern Airbus jetliners with their computerised, 'glass-cockpit' sophistication.

Recent newspaper reports said that the final four SriLankan Airlines/Air Lanka TriStars have been sold to a Canadian charter operator. Yet others in the industry suspect that they are due to be scrapped. The Abu Dhabi location to which Capt. Kelaart flew the last L-1011 is known among the aviation fraternity as the 'Gulf Air graveyard', a place where old TriStars and other 'jumbo jets' go to die. Like the legendary elephant ('jumbo') graveyards of the animal kingdom!

Perhaps the reality lies somewhere in between. Could it be that at least a couple of the former Air Lanka TriStars will be given a new lease of life somewhere else? That will be a just reward for an airplane that brought fame and recognition to the tiny nation of Sri Lanka by cementing its place on the aviation route maps of the world.

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