>>> Taken on 10-7-02  (Thomas Pohl)

I now have some more information about the Caribou in Iran. I have spoken with the person who gave me the photo, and he has confirmed
that the photo was taken in March 2000. He has also told me some more about the aircraft.

The aircraft was 're-discovered' by westerners (well, UK-based enthusiasts) during late 1996/early 1997 by somebody who works for British Airways (BA). He managed to visit the museum in Feb 1997, and had the opportunity to crawl all over most of the aircraft in the museum (there's a DHC-2 Beaver there too). For most of the aircraft he was able to get a positive identity for each aircraft, but the interior of the DHC-4 had been mostly trashed and he was unable to find a manufacturers plate.

On the forward fuselage (in 1997) it was just marked 'IAF', but it was possible to see where the first 'I' had been scrubbed. The first 'I' was 'Imperial', but this was removed from all aircraft at the time of the revolution in the mid/late 70's. The number under the 'IAF' is either '552' or '553', but this is its Iranian identity, not necessarily its former US identity.

At the time of the visit in 1997, the guy from BA spoke with the museum curator, and he was told that the aircraft used to fly up and down the Iran/Russian border full of 'electronics gear'. At the time of the revolution the gear was removed and the aircraft left in Iran - therefore it may well have been a USAF/US Army example! The curator also implied that the aircraft had been in the museum since the 80's.