Those services continued, for political reasons, even after April 1941, by which time TAT was six months behind in paying the lease fees and salaries of the pilot and mechanic.

[7] In 1969, TAT was operating flights to six destinations in Portuguese Timor, and once a week a chartered Fokker F27 Friendship of Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) flew the Baucau to Darwin route.

[2] In June 1973, the Indonesian government authorised TAT to start flying biweekly between Dili and Kupang, which by then was in West Timor in independent Indonesia.

[11] From the mid-1950s to 1975, the backbone of TAT's fleet was a pair of de Havilland Doves, which were small airliners powered by twin piston engines.

[16] At the time the airline was shut down following the Indonesian invasion of East Timor at the end of 1975, the fleet consisted of the two Doves and a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander,[1] which had been acquired in late 1974.

[19] The former TAT de Havilland Dove CR-TAG "Manatuto", which escaped the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in late 1975, is now on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum.

[17][21] After being admitted to Australia as an 'aircraft in transit', it remained in Darwin and was ultimately declared to be an illegal import by the Australian government and impounded.

Following extensive diplomatic communications between Australia, Portugal and Indonesia, it was donated by the Portuguese government to the museum in January 1978, and formally approved for import four months later.