At the start of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the attack on Nicosia airport caught all five of Cyprus Airways aircraft on the ground. Of the four Tridents stranded at Nicosia International Airport one was destroyed by Turkish Air force rocket fire and wreckage of its tail still exists at that airport and one was damaged by small arms fire remaining in the same position today as it did in 1974. The two other Tridents were only lightly damaged by small arms fire and were flown out of Nicosia by British Airways engineers to the United Kingdom in 1977. The team from British Airways was assisted by a British Army team from the UN Peace Keeping (UNFICYP) REME Workshop based in Nicosia.