This was the first 748 on the Canadian register having been bought from Channel Airways (G-ATEJ) and delivered in December 1967. In the 1980s, when the used prices came down, Canadian operators went for them in a big way as they were ideal for northern service, being ruggedly built and certified for gravel runways. Nothing could touch them until the ATR became affordable, so operators flew them unpressurized to compensate for locally designed large freight doors and to stretch out the airframe fatigue life. The thing that finally did them in was the Dart engines.