While some take off others stay on land for good. Mallorca's king of discos, Bartolomé Cursach Mas (BCM, Riu Palace, Zorbas, photo l.) goes for the charter airline business, starting off with one 320-200 airbus. Simultaneously, the Mallorquín charter Centennial closes down. While one of the airline's two planes was being checked over in the Palma hangar, the managing offices in London airport decided to dispossess the other airline's plane (see photograph) for not paying landing and take off fees. Centennial president, Tomás Cano (photo r.), a man with plenty experience in dealing with crises, has not been able to find a solution to this one. All that remains are regrets, last Friday's bankruptcy paperwork at court and a likely 220 unemployed workers. 
P.S. In addition to the new airport security fee of 150 pts per passenger (see Mallorca News No. 14) another fee for the use of the national meteorology services is also being contemplated.

Live music on the airbus, police escort, a VIP reception at the Hotel Riu San Francisco, a party at the Ballermann spa... all leading up to the first edition of the contest Mallorca's Great Treasure Hunt organized by the German sensationalist newspaper Bild Zeitung that was held last Saturday. A total of 90 coffers -- of different sizes, the smallest was worth about 45.000 ptas -- full of gold nuggets were buried in the sandy beach of El Arenal. As one would expect, the treasure seekers, who had come from Germany on a special Lufthansa flight, started digging like mad. To such an extent that by 17.30 the lucky winner, Mike Meckeprang(see photograph), a printer from Hamburg, was happily boarding his flight home, 8,5 million ptas richer. The second load of treasure hunters is expected on Saturday.
We would like to take our hat off to this mad yet brilliant advertising campaign.

Mouna Al Ayoub (see Mallorca News No. 9 and 11) is serious: ex-wife of oil tycoon Al Rashid, whose luxury yacht has been moored in the Palma harbour for quite some time, is having Christie's auction her jewelry collection, perhaps the most valuable in the world, worth an estimated 1.500 million pesetas. Among others, on November 16, in Géneve, a piece of diamonds and emeralds worth approximately 84 million pesetas (see photo) will be put up for auction. The money collected will be put towards "Lady Mouna's" dream: opening a private international school in Mallorca. Will it cover?
A complete article and many more photographs on request.

The islands' leading newspaper, the Diario de Mallorca, invites its readers to take a look into the past every Sunday and discover the island "never to be seen again". Memoria Grafica de Mallorca (Graphic Memoirs of Mallorca) is a collection of 57 full page issues in quality paper which promise to surprise both locals and foreigners. Among other things, younger generations and tourists, of course, will have the chance to see that until well into the 20th century, the sea came right up to the cathedral walls (photograph: a postcard from 1915).