On the flight deck were the Airline's two most senior Fokker -100 pilots, Captains Ma, Bao-Shan and Lucas Corver, a former Fokker test pilot who joined Mandarin Airlines as a Captain and Instructor Pilot when the famous Dutch Aircraft maker closed its factory doors in March 1996.

The two pilots had tracked an exotic flight path over three days after taking off from Kaoshiung on Friday with refueling stops in Thailand, India, Oman, Egypt and Greece. A long and tedious journey that Captain Corver, who has flown it many times in both directions, said, with a mischievous but confident wink, was "nothing more than a milk run."

In Holland the aircraft will get a total refit before undergoing further test flights and then entering service with a new European operator early next year.

Aboard the plane were 36 cartons, a complete library of documents chronicling every day in the life of the aircraft's 14 years in service with the airline, right up to its last scheduled flight from Kinmen to Taichung on Oct. 27 also with Captains Corver and Ma, Bao-Shan at the controls.

In Taiwan to supervise the minutiae involved in the sale of a commercial jet airliner, Jack Bos, Manager of the Technical Lease Management Department of Panta Holdings in Holland, was well pleased with the results of the plane's last test flight. Details and checks that go from engine thrust requirement, flight control and bleed air systems all the way down to hot water supply in the lavatories. The whole process, Bos explained, began with negotiation on price and delivery conditions. The buyer is entitled to undertake a complete physical inspection of the aircraft and documents over a period of three weeks before the scheduled delivery date.

"It's sad day for us all at Mandarin and is almost like losing a daughter and seeing her marry into another family," intoned Steven Liao, the Airline's senior vice President (Maintenance) nostalgically. He was reflecting on the 14-year record of faultless service seen by the six sister Fokker 100s and seven Fokker 50 aircraft that were once in service with Mandarin Airlines - at the time the largest fleet of Fokker planes operated by any airline in Asia.

Liao signed for acceptance of the aircraft in Holland on behalf of Mandarin Airlines and Captain Corver delivered this, the first of six Fokker 100s, to Mandarin Airlines in December 1995. They were to form the backbone of Mandarin's fleet of short haul aircraft for island wide and regional service. Airlines. Mandarin wholly owned two planes and four were leased. Coincidentally, he said, the Airline's first Fokker -100 was also the last to leave service and be flown back to Holland.

And this is after completing more than 40,000 cycles (an airplane cycle is a take-off and landing) in operation with the airline. It was first introduced for shuttle between Taipei and Kaoshiung, from "dawn until curfew," with 109 passengers and daily frequency of 11 flights - that's a flight time and transit of about 30 minutes. "Because you couldn't fly at midnight, otherwise there could have well been twelve," Liao smiles. Not surprising the cycles accumulated so fast. Not alone for this plane.

A few quick computations toss out a massive accumulated total for the entire fleet of seven Fokker-50 and six Fokker-100 of 345,000 cycles and 210,000 flying hours during their operation with Mandarin Airlines.

And so long as the maintenance program and manufacturer's regulations were followed with all due diligence "there no reason why that should not have been the case," said Liao.

The original Rolls Royce Tay-650 engines are still in place although, considering component replacement over the years as part of Mandarin's CAA approved maintenance program, "you could say they have been completely overhauled a number of times and are as good as new." "Besides, as they say at Rolls Royce, if you see the sign of oil the engines are still running," he quips.

Mandarin gradually phased out its Fokker fleet during the past two years. Most of the Fokker-50s have been sold to an Australian operator while the Fokker-100s have been returned or sold to the leasing company Panta.

Fokker, he said, had been synonymous with reliability and there had been no "special issues" during their operation by Mandarin Airlines. In practical terms they could have continued in service for another decade or more but with. Fokker's demise as a manufacturer and no new aircraft of this type in the offing Mandarin was simply unable to renew and expand its fleet he added.

"Because we're so familiar with this aircraft type we were more than ready to introduce a new Fokker model had it been available," Liao says emphatically. This seemed almost likely about six years ago when, faced with the need to lease or buy new aircraft to update its fleet, Mandarin was approached by a possible successor to Fokker with an offer for a next generation of Fokker-100 aircraft named the Fokker-100 NG.

The Airline would have done so without hesitation he said, but then the deal fizzled out. "It marked a turning point in the company's history. We'd been waiting so many years and it is just such a pity we couldn't continue flying this plane."

Domestically too, Mandarin, like its local competitors he said, had been hit by the introduction of Taiwan's High Speed Rail Service three years ago. This caused a drop in frequency from 100 to 50 flights a day - a situation that could change dramatically once regional flights to the mainland and elsewhere in the region are further developed.

A last word came from Mandarin PR manager Irving Hsu who was monitoring the arrival of the plane in Holland yesterday. "History has been made. No fleet of airplanes anywhere in the world has worked harder than "our beloved Fokker-100. Now that they have all returned home to Europe I salute their record in what has truly been a magnificent era for aviation in Taiwan."