Air Lekkerbek Demise (4) - 17 March 2019

A walk from the cruise port to downtown Philipsburg was rewarded by the completely unexpected sight, in a scrapyard, of the former Air Lekkerbek Bar & Restaurant. The NAMC YS-11-111 was originally delivered to All Nippon Airways and withdrawn as PJ-WIK by Winair at SXM before becoming a well-known restaurant feature in Philipsburg where it was well into 2018 although it might have stopped functioning as a restaurant some while before then. The aircraft was painted in Heineken green.

There are multiple and not particularly coherent threads to be viewed on the demise of the restaurant and some of the views appear controversial. Whatever the facts, the aircraft body was at the scrapyard by 17 March 2019 and, I think, actual scrapping had commenced.

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