Nora Air Services
| NORA AIR SERVICES GmbH | |
|---|---|
| IATA code : | - |
| ICAO code : | - |
| Call sign : | - |
| Founding: | 1970 |
| Operation stopped: | 1972 |
| Seat: |
Kassel , Germany
|
| Home airport : | Kassel-Calden airfield |
| Company form: | GmbH |
| Management: | |
| Fleet size: | 5 |
| Aims: | no |
| NORA AIR SERVICES GmbH ceased operations in 1972. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Nora Air Services (actually NORA AIR SERVICES GmbH, NAS for short) was a German airline based in Kassel . It never started its flight operations.
history
In the course of 1970, Nora Air Services was founded by Oskar Helberg. With promising profit promises, Helberg was able to win private individuals as limited partners for himself and his company. At the beginning, these brought a capital of 3 million marks into the company. In August of the same year, Nora Air Services announced that they wanted to connect the Kassel-Calden airfield to major European cities on weekends from October ; this did not happen. Meanwhile, Helberg started looking for a suitable aircraft and in June 1971 he bought four Vickers Viscounts from Lufthansa as a private individual for a price of 812,000 marks . These machines were then sold via a letterbox company based in Liechtenstein for 9.68 million marks to the actual Nora Air Services as depreciation objects. Helberg also applied the same concept to a Nord Noratlas acquired by the Bundeswehr in the winter of 1971 : the actual aircraft intended for scrapping, which Helberg had bought as a private individual for only 72,000 marks, he sold to the company for 1.3 million marks.
In order not to let his limited partners become suspicious and to give the appearance of an imminent start of operations, Helberg had the machines of the Viscount type painted a striking purple-yellow. On August 28, 1971, the first Viscount in the new company colors was transferred to the home base in Kassel after finishing the painting work carried out at Hamburg Airport. During the ceremonial arrival there, the start of an extensive flight program to travel destinations was announced - knowing full well that the certificate of airworthiness of this very first Viscount was to expire two days later. The painting work on the remaining aircraft, including the Noratlas actually no longer intended for flight operations, was completed by December 1971. The latter machine was only on December 16, 1971, thanks to an exemption from the airfield Lemwerder for Bremen Airport are transferred.
In January 1972, Nora Air Services announced that the receipt of the operator's certificate could be expected in March or April. In addition to passenger flights, the transport of cargo was also considered, and two Jakowlew Jak-40 machines were ordered. But when this renewed announcement was not followed by any action, the cheated limited partners became suspicious; In the absence of Oskar Helberg, who had gone underground with his money, insolvency proceedings were opened through Nora Air Services towards the end of 1972 . While a Viscount and the Noratlas only had scrap value and as a result were handed over to Lufthansa and the Bremen airport fire department as a training object, the remaining Viscount could be sold to British Midland Airways .
The public prosecutor's office in Kassel also started its investigation with the bankruptcy proceedings. Helberg, who went into hiding, was later arrested.
fleet
In the spring of 1972, the Nora Air Services fleet consisted of the following five aircraft:
| Aircraft type | number | Aircraft registration number and name | origin | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Noratlas | 1 | D-ANAS | Ex-Luftwaffe 52 + 13 | handed over to the Bremen airport fire brigade as a training object |
| Vickers Viscount 814D | 4th | D-ANAF | Ex-Lufthansa | until autumn 2012 training object for Lufthansa mechanic training |
| D-ANIP , Calden | to British Midland Airways as G-BAPE | |||
| D-ANIZ | to British Midland Airways as G-BAPG | |||
| D-ANUN , Westuffeln | to British Midland Airways as G-BAPF | |||
| total | 5 |
Trivia
On January 11, 1980, the television program Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved the case of Nora Air Services and the search for Oskar Helberg.
See also
literature
- Karl-Dieter Seifert: German air traffic 1955–2000 - world traffic, liberalization, globalization (= German aviation . No. 29 ). Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6121-7 .
- Joachim Wölfer: German passenger aviation from 1955 until today . Mittler, Berlin / Bonn / Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-8132-0477-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ World Airlines. Nora Air Services GmbH (NAS) . In: Flight International . tape 101 , no. 3296 . IPC Business Press, London May 18, 1972, Supplement 34 (English, flightglobal.com [accessed August 2, 2016] applies to all managerial positions.).
- ↑ a b c d Wölfer, 1995, p. 118.
- ↑ a b c Wim Zwakhals: Nora Air Services. In: oud Zestienhoven.nl. June 2012, accessed August 2, 2016 (Dutch).
- ↑ Seifert, 2001, p. 110.
- ↑ Liechtenstein: One trust washes the other . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1976, pp. 38 ( online ).
- ↑ a b File number XY of January 11, 1980: Fraud with junk airplanes on YouTube . Retrieved August 2, 2016.
- ^ Russians about Hanover . In: Die Zeit , No. 16/1972
- ^ World Airline Survey. Nora Air Services GmbH (NAS) . In: Flight International . tape 103 , no. 3341 . IPC Business Press, London March 22, 1973, pp. 464 (English, flightglobal.com [accessed August 2, 2016]).
- ↑ A touch of money . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1973, pp. 36 ( online ).
- ↑ JP aircraft-markings 72.
- ↑ Seifert, 2001, p. 379.
- ↑ Vickers Viscount 814 will soon be accessible to visitors. In: airliners.de. September 11, 2014, accessed August 2, 2016 .
