Delivered to BCPA on the 19 November 1948. Sold to Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) in May 1954 - named Aotearoa III. To the RNZAF as NZ3631 in March 1961. To Royal Laos Airlines in November 1968. Crashed in Java on 01 February 1971. (Unknown Photographer)

Sold to Australian Aircraft Sales in 1968 which then sold it in Laos as XW-DKJ. Photo from: RNZAF/Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Photo taken by an unknown photographer in the second half of 1954. This aircraft had been VH-BPF with British Commonwealth Pacific Airways, a joint Anglo-Australian-New Zealand airline. BCPA closed down after a major accident and the remaining DC-6s transferred to TEAL, which was another tri-national airline but with a higher New Zealand ownership. VH-BPF became ZK-BGA on May 13, 1954 (ZK-BFA was not taken up, contrary to many sources), and was sold to the New Zealand air force as NZ3631 in 1961, the year TEAL became an entirely New Zealand-owned airline. TEAL would later change its name to Air New Zealand. Negative held by Bill Gray, Perth, Australia.