delivery of two An-26s. One crashed at Parakou
in eastern Benin in 1985 while being piloted by a
Russian crew, following a burst tyre on take-off.
The second was sent for repair in 1988, but Benin
was unable to pay for it and the aircraft remained
in the USSR. Three An-2s had meanwhile arrived
in 1979 but remained in service for only three
years before returning to the Soviet Union.
The government fleet began to acquire
aircraft from 1978, when two Fokker
F27-600s were delivered. These were
soon transferred to the national airline, Air
Benin. The second was sent for repair, but
it stayed in the USSR when payment from
Benin for the work was not forthcoming.
Two An-2s had meanwhile arrived in 1979
but were in service for only three years.
An Aérospatiale SN601 Corvette VIP
transport, delivered on April 26, 1979,
crashed on approach to Murtala Muhammed
International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, on
November 16, 1981. A Falcon 50 donated
by Libya in 1982 was sold in October the
following year. In another accident on June
13, 1985, Boeing 707-336B presidential
transport TY-BBR was destroyed by fire after
aborting a take-off from Sebha Airport in
Libya. The airliner, once G-AXXZ with British
Airways, had only been transferred to Benin
two years earlier. A Fokker F28-4000 was
delivered in late 1982 but was passed to
Air Benin in 1983 and subsequently sold.
The air force started to acquire aircraft again
in 1982 with the arrival of two former French
Navy C-47s. These were sold during late- Two Do 28D-2s were gifted by Nigeria
in 1985. A 1984-built Air Benin/Transport
Aérien du Benin DHC-6-300 was transferred
to the air force in 1996 and remains active.
The Force Aérienne Populaire de Benin
acquired its first two helicopters during 1984-
85: a pair of AS350B Écureuils. On August
10, 2001, Benin’s army chief of staff, Col
Jean N’Pina, died when AS350B TY-HBA
crashed in the Kokoro region, around 186
miles (300km) north of the city of Cotonou.
Two SMAN Pétrels had been acquired by
June 1999, when one crashed. The second
was later displayed on the gate at Cotonou.
Since the start of the new millennium,
Belgium has supplied eight aircraft to Benin
- two HS748s in 2002 plus one for spares
in 2003, and four A109BA helicopters in
2007 plus one for spares recovery.
Other arrivals this millennium are a 707-320 - for presidential use – in 2010 and two LH
Aviation LH-10A Grand Duc ultralights in 2014 for
surveillance and training missions. A Leonardo
AW139 was delivered during August 2014 but
crashed on December 26 the following year.
The air force – now known as the Force
Aérienne de Benin – now has 400 personnel
and only four aircraft in service at most.
The four A109s have been withdrawn from
use and are stored without rotor blades.
Africa’s ‘small air forces’
In the first of a new series,
Arnaud Delalande investigates
sub-Saharan Africa’s ‘small air
fo r c e s’, defined as those with 30
or fewer airframes – and which
don’t currently find themselves
involved in combat operations.Force Aérienne de Benin
Serial Type c/n Delivery date
TY-21A HS748 1741/222 2002
TY-23A DHC-6-300 807 1996
TY-41L LH-10A 002 2014
TY-42L LH-10A 003 2014DHC-6-300 Twin Otter TY-23A (c/n 807) was
delivered to the Force Aérienne de Benin in 1996
and is today one of the handful of active aircraft
in the inventory. This particular aircraft was built
in 1984 and previously served with Air Benin/
Transport Aérien du Benin. Benoît Denethttp://www.airforcesmonthly.com #362 MAY 2018 // 45