A‐7 retirement ceremony at Araxos Air Base: the end of a legend
On October 17th, 2014 an era ended in the Southern part of Europe. The Hellenic Air Force retired its Ling
Temco Vought (LTV) A‐7 CORSAIR after 39 years in operational service. The HAF was the last operator of this
ground attack aircraft. The A‐7´s final deployment (outside Greece) took place at the Royal International Air
Tattoo 2014 at RAF Fairford, where the retirement ceremony was officially announced by the crew. All kind
of enthusiasts, plane spotters but also aviation journalists would get a last chance to say good bye to the Last
Corsair´s of the Universe, as the A‐7´s were unofficially called within the Hellenic Air Force. Of course we took
the chance to take part in this event.
A nice surprise was announced by the HAF, which offered all accredited media and aviation spotters a very
special access to the A‐7´s home base (Araxos AB) the day before the official retirement ceremony took
place.