Friday, June 10, 2011

Liberia '77 Photos: Robertsfield


Continuing from the previous post, here are a few more completely awesome images from the Topham brother's Liberia '77 photo submission page. These are of Robertsfield.

The first shows a cool-looking dude, identified as Peter, standing astride a KLM DC-8, which, if my recall is correct, operated something like a Amsterdam-Zürich-Conakry-Monrovia route a few times a week in those days.

Second photo is an excellent view of the front of KLM's purpose-built terminal at RIA, which was adjacent to the much larger Pan American terminal. The KLM terminal is today a swanky VIP-only terminal, used by government ministers and philanthropy celebrities that come to town.

Although Air France recently restarted service to Monrovia, and KLM never closed its Broad Street ticket office, the Dutch airline has yet to return to Liberia.

Lastly is this incredible shot of a massive Nigerian Airways DC-10 in a compromised position at the end of the main runway (Unification Town/Smell-No-Taste area). Seems the flagship of the fleet of the wingéd pachyderm went a bit awry on a landing or take-off. Especially curious given how long RIA's runway is. The fellow casually sauntering toward the camera is pretty cool. (As an aside, I'm not at all sure but I wonder if such a large plane was regularly used to ply the route between Lagos and Monrovia, or if this widebody plane went on a route to Dakar and then trans-atlantic to New York).

There's lots more amazing, beautiful stuff at the Liberia '77 site, and its just getting started.

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