Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation terminates operations
The Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation has announced that it has taken the difficult decision to terminate its activities. The foundation has released the following statement regarding the termination of their operations:
"Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation terminates Operations
With great regret we inform you that the Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation (DHHF) has decided to close down its operations, and consequently will divest its Hawker Hunter Mk68 G-EHLW, still located with Horizon Aircraft Services Ltd. (HAS) at St Athan, Wales.
When Hunter N-322/G-EHLW was finally flown out of Altenrhein, Switzerland to St Athan on a CAA Permit to Test & Ferry in July 2022 - after very thorough maintenance and CAA-inspections on site -, we were confident that after minor adaptations and modifications the CAA would grant a Full Permit to Fly, and that our new Hunter would arrive at Leeuwarden Air Base at the end of summer.
It has worked out very differently. The way UK CAA has handled our application, has taken endless time and effort without any commitment to a timetable or outcome. At this moment, nearly 2 years after its UK-arrival, N-322 is still without a Permit to Fly and it is unclear if and when this Permit will be forthcoming.
These delays have over time led to more regulatory and operational issues coming up, such as the continued availability of HAS as our CAMO. Furthermore, the delays have severely impacted our operational organization, in terms of availability and currency of qualified aircrew and groundcrew.
Evaluating DHHF’s business against the actual state of affairs and future scenarios, the Board has concluded that it is no longer possible to operate its Hunter in a way, which conforms to the professional standards DHHF has applied without compromise from the start of its Hunter operations in 2007.
Therefore our Hawker Hunter Mk68 N-322, in all aspects the best Hunter we have ever known, and the last airworthy specimen of this great British-designed fighter in Europe, will never take to the sky in Dutch airspace. An era has come to an end."
A very sad message to pass on to you, that is for sure! We at Scramble Magazine can only assume that the CAA’s reluctance to give a Permit to Fly to a Hunter operated by civilians is the long-term effect of the so-called ‘Shoreham tragedy’. On 22 August 2015, Hunter T7 G-BXFI (WV372) crashed during the Shoreham Airshow, an accident which took the lives of eleven people.
Credit photo: Johan Havelaar (Scramble Archive)