THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 2/2 : Final Day of Operations of Air Via TU-154M LZ-MIK from Varna to Hannover

Daniel’s Travel Log

I had different plans.

The original plan was to fly onboard Belavia's AN-24 from Berlin to Minsk together with Henry Tenby from Vancouver on the last weekend of October, 2005 taping the flight on video and writing an article about Belavia.

Security was tight in Belarus and permissions were needed and not an enthusiast’s friendly spot back in 2005.

Working myself through a difficult process up to the Top of Belavia, obtaining the necessary permissions, it was finally “Mission achieved”, and Henry and I were ready to go.

However Belavia revoked the granted permission to make pictures on board their AN-24 in the last minute for no reason.

At the same time it came to my ears, that Air Via was replacing their Tupolevs with A320s at the end of October at an alarming speed and that the last flights on TU-154M were scheduled to be operated on the weekend ahead.

Changing plans in Germany on short notice is not easy, especially not on a Friday.

My passport was lying at the Belarus Embassy in Berlin with a no longer required visa and tickets on Air Via could not be purchased through the internet, only through travel agent channels at TUI in Hannover.

All seats on board of Air Via were sold and marketed through travel agents, Air Via provided plane and crew but did not sell seats.

Getting a last minute air ticket on a Friday in Germany on TUI through normal channels was simply impossible !

The weekend planning for charter flights was finished and TUI was not able nor willing to issue any tickets on their contingent through ordinary channels and time was running out.

It was a Friday in Germany and people stop working around noon.

It took a half a day of phone calls to the headquarter of Air Via in Sofia in order to connect to the top management of TUI in Hannover to help me getting on board of two empty flights !

Making a long story short, Air Via managed to get me on board through top management intervention for 50 Euros and I spent the next Saturday flying from Frankfurt to Berlin to pick up my passport from security personnel at the Belarus Embassy.

Off to Varna on Dusseldorf’s final Air Via TU-154M, I returned the following morning back to Hannover, on the final day of operations of Air Via’s legendary Tupolevs.

I taped this flight with newest HD camera equipment available back in 2005.

It may well be possible, that these footages are the only footages of Air Via's Tupolev to be taped in detail and published in HD quality.

Unfortunately I did not realize that my new external microphone was bumping against the wall creating these terrible squeeking sounds during take off and landing.

I needed weeks to edit this video cutting it into hundreds of small puzzle pieces in order to remove the worst squeeking parts during the taxi and take off scenes and reassemble the remaining puzzle parts without disrupting the story. This is the remastered and improved result !

Welcome on board Air Via TU-154M LZ-MIK from Varna to Hannover on October 31, 2005, the last day of scheduled operation of Air Via’s TU-154M.

Welcome to the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation.
Thank you for watching my channel.

History of Tupolev 154M LZ-MIK

Airframe 90A844 was manufactured 1990 at the Aviakor plant and delivered to VIA (Varna International Air) – later Air Via – the first privately owned Air Carrier in Bulgaria
registered LZ-MIK on July 20, 1990.

LZ-MIK was leased to Oriental Airlines, Nigeria from December, 1990 until April, 1991.

The last day of scheduled operation of LZ-MIK for Air Via was October 31, 2005 on a double rotation from Varna to Hannover with the author on board on the first morning leg out of Varna.

LZ-MIK was transferred to Moscow-Vnukovo and operated for Red Wings (Airline 400) after December 1, 2006, newly registered RA-85016.

RA-85016 was leased to Tyumen Avia Trans (TAT), a division of UTair after January 19, 2007.

RA-85016 is reported broken up in 2014.

Flight details

Flight : VIM 111
Date : Monday, October 31, 2005
Aircraft : Tupolev 154M
Registration : LZ-MIK
Later Registration :
RA-85016 (Red Wings, Tyumen Avia Trans – UTair -)
Year manufactured : 1990
From : Varna (VAR)
To : Hannover (HAJ)
Take Off : 07.05 h (0505 Z)
Touch down : 08.20 h (0720 Z)
Flying time : 2 hours 15 minutes
Distance : 962 nM / 1.782 km
Altitude : 38.000 ft
Speed : 474 knots
Flight Captain : Todorov, Ivan
First Officer : Stefanov, Krasimir
Flight Engineer : Lishkov, Veselin
Purserette : Kancheva, Ekaterina
Cabin Crew : Jovcheva, Dora
Cabin Crew : Kafkova, Milena
Cabin Crew : Bachvarova, Neli
Cabin Crew : Zhekova, Veselina