Northwest Airlines DC-10-30 Honolulu to Minneapolis

Still trying to make Trijet Tuesday a thing! Today’s flight is of the last Northwest DC-10 flight from Honolulu to their main hub at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Northwest was one of the last major passenger operators of the venerable Diesel 10, finally retiring the type in 2007 after over 30 years of service. The big trijet, alongside the 747, served as the backbone of the airline’s long-haul routes until the 1990s, when Airbus A330s began to supplement and eventually replace the former entirely and the latter on low-capacity flights, e.g. PDX-NRT. On January 7th, 2007, the big red-tailed McDonnell-Douglas left Honolulu for the last time, marking an end to almost 35 years of DC-10 operations at the airport. Today, Delta operates the HNL-MSP route as DL311 with the DC-10’s replacement in the NW fleet, the A330-300.

Server: Solo
Airline: Northwest Airlines
Aircraft: McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-30
Origin: Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL)
Destination: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Fort Snelling, Minnesota (MSP)
Flight Number: NW98
Route: PHNL-KMSP
Seat: 12A (Coach)
Time En Route: 7 Hours 52 Minutes

Waiting to board as the sun sets in Honolulu. Not all of Northwest’s DC-10s received the new silver and red livery, with most remaining in the 1990s-era “Bowling Shoe” livery, arguably one of the most striking liveries to grace the Diesel 10.

Long taxi out to the Reef Runway for takeoff. Northwest, perhaps foreshadowing post-merger Delta’s behavior regarding aging aircraft, held on to the Douglas Death Ship much longer than fellow U.S. carriers American, United, and Hawaiian did, all of them retiring the type within a few years of each other around the turn of the century.


CF6-50C2s powering us airborne on takeoff and climbout over the island of Oahu in a flying time capsule, a throwback to when Economy was called Coach, smoking was not only allowed but common on airplanes, and flight decks had a 3-person crew.


Turning northeast over Oakland International, with one of Northwest’s West Coast hubs, SFO, visible in the background.

Descent into the Twin Cities with the full 50° of flaps deployed for landing

Pre-dawn arrival at MSP

Getting a water cannon salute as we taxi into Gate F14

Before deplaning, we got a tour of the flight deck and a detailed walk-through of start-up and takeoff procedures while sitting in the flight engineer’s seat.

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Obligatory @Mort summon.

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I think he was the first like on this post.

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Summoning him to see it again then.

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