The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo plane that was manufactured from 1931 until the early 1950s, though not by Junkers from 1945 onwards and saw service with numerous users all around the globe.
Switzerland was one of those users when in October 1939, the Swiss Air Force received three Ju.52/3mg4e for navigator and observer training duties. Those three Junkers, which bore the serial numbers 6580, 6595 and 6610, were re-registered in Swiss registrations, A-701/HB-HOS, A-702/ HB-HOT and A-703/HB-HOP respectively.
They were employed in transport duties apart from their original training purpose.
After World War 2, they suffered some minor alterations; the main landing gears were replaced with those built by Amiot for the AAC.1 Toucan and the tail wheel was replaced with spare nose wheels from De Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.6 which Switzerland bought in 1946. The Swiss Junkers were kept in active with the Swiss Air Force until September 1982, for 43 straight years.
All three of them were sold to the company Ju-Air at Dübendorf, which also bought additional CASA 352/A. One of the original Ju.52/3mg4e, HB-HOT suffered an unfortunate crash on 4th August 2018 when on a sightseeing flight, killing all 20 people on board.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_the_Swiss_Air_Force
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Junkers_Ju_52
4. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action
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