VASP Airlines, commonly shortened to VASP was an American Airline based in Boston that operated between 1979
and 2011.
History[]
Victor Andrews and Samuel Parson found the airline in 1976. The airline was originally called VA-SP, based on the founders initials. The airline commenced operations in 1979. In 1983, it was renamed VASP Airlines. The airline suspended all flights in August 2011 after information was leaked from an internal executive-only memo that the crash of Flight 1518 had to do with lack of maintenance. The airline's website and offices closed in February 2012. Several of the aircraft are still on the ground at various airports. On May 1, 2017, Don Hnatko, the CEO of the airline from mid-1996 to February 2012 was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Jim Marcon, the final mechanic to work on the aircraft that operated Flight 1518, just 17 hours before the crash. Hnatko murdered Marcon days after Marcon announced to the public that the crash was no accident. Victor Andrews, the co-founder, CEO between 1978-1982, and chairman 1976-2011, said that he had no idea what Marcon was talking about. Samuel Parson, the other co-founder and CEO between 1976-1977 was not available for a comment.
Fleet[]
Aircraft | Years Operated | Amount | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Boeing 707-320B | 1979-1997 | 8 | 7 scrapped, 1 in serivce w/ Saha Airlines |
Boeing 727-100 | 1981-1994 | 5 | 3 in service with Iran Aseman Airlines, 2 unknown |
Boeing 747-200 | 1979-2001 | 12 | 3 in service with Iran Air (Until 2017, all scrapped), 1 in service with Ethiopia Airlines Cargo (Until 2014, current status unknown) |
Boeing 747-400 | 2001-2011 | 12 | 1 in service with KLM, 1 in service with Atlas Air, 3 in service with Iran Air, 4 in service with other airlines, 2 scrapped, 1 unknown |
Boeing 757-200 | 1994-2011 | 13 | 7 in service with different airlines |