strangest freight

[boxmonkey]

Flew from Kennedy to Colonge in a MD-11 with just one box. It was full of Russian Art worth 60 million.. And the person they sent along to watch the cargo was the hottest Russion girl Ive ever seen. Well, all I can say is that "I" flew the whole flight (and the auto pilot) cause the captian was to busy telling war stories to her...HA HA I guess its good to be the Capt!

[Dusthog]

I flew a Superpuma helicopter from Stavanger, Norway, to an oilrig 1.5 hours offshore to deliver a floppydisk. Never asked about using the internet.

Later that same year I flew barrels of oil out to that same rig:D

[CosmoAir]

2 tons of earth worms.
1 million honey bees.
frozen frog legs.
frozen sheep intestines.
used whiskey barrels (wow, do they smell great!).

[aseanaero]

TMM - talking meat missiles - aka skydivers , they're pretty strange ...

[exmover_and_happy]

Sultan of Omans Air Force Seeb, mid 80's. At the end of Ramadhan the Sultan shipped, by air, live goats and sheep to outlying townships and villages so they could be slaughtered for the Eid celebrations.

They mostly went on Skyvans to the small dirt strips, but one C130 full of sheep and goats went to Masirah Island and Thumrait for the troops to celebrate Eid. On this occasion a dump truck turned up at the air cargo hangar full of goats, so I asked the Pakistani driver how we would get the goats out of the dump truck so they could go into their crates which were then palletized for loading in the Herc. "No problem sir" was the response as he yanked the lever that made the dump bed rise in the air. Result? All the goats slid to the back and fell through the unfastened flap and promptly scattered far and wide.

Seeb airport was then closed for about two hours while we rounded up the goats like crazed herders. We got most of them, but some of my cargo handlers had liberated goats jammed in the back of their cars ready to celebrate Eid in fine style.

[tflier]

I remember a sign outside Liverpool airport which used to read 'Welcome to Liverpool. A nuclear Free City', whatever that was supposed to mean!
I was rather surprised considering I was taking spent nuclear fuel rods from Sellafield (which had arrived overnight by truck, through said same streets!) onto their rather odd destination!
But it was the early 80's!

[Spaced Out]

13 White Rhino to various destinations in Europe.

The challenge was that we had to load 40T of Fish ex. JNB on the same -400F, tricky, managed and glad to get them off again.:ok:

[Anonymus6]

The strangest thing I have ever carried in my airplane was a 20 ibs box with a heart in it. I flew it from LAX to Montgomery field. I had the permission from the chief pilot to bump up the power if I needed to get there on time.

It was fun,,,,:ok:

[mikehammer]

In this morning's post:
6 boxes of live lobsters
1 bucket of live worms, type unspecified.
2 boxes medical samples.
1 box Fresias (apparently it's a plant)
Breakfast anyone?

Oh, and some post.

[theloady]

whATdo you think'bout 4 Volvo car engines on 4 PMC pallets on our 742F completely empty maindeck from vbs to orebro sweden?????

that's why oceanirlines failed down....:mad:


i don't trust commercial dep.

[Belgianboy]

The underdeck of a DC-9-62F fully loaded with new dustbins
Palmtrees to the Gulf
Full cargo of sand to the Gulf

[Belgianboy]

Not involved but witnessed:

A spark plug, repeat only one spark plug for a lawn mower delivered by a USAF C-124 Globemaster

[slowto280]

VIP DC-8-72, Ferry Dhahran - Medina (a week or so earlier, ferry Houston - Dhahran.....), pick up 2 Falcons and 1 Handler and deliver to the 'fellas' in Algiers for an outing. Ah, what's 30,000+ gallons of Jet A anyway.....? (oh, late 80's, no problem....)

[fesmokie]

500 gallons of avgas in a very old and used bladder in a very old and used DC-3 up in Northern BC Canada. The Captain and I were sitting up front with the windows open and both smoking cigarettes when the bladder started leaking real bad. We very carefully put the smokes out, turned off the nav lights cause the gas was pouring out of the tail cone and through the tail light. We landed a short time later and finished our smokes. We lost a couple hundred lbs of gas though.:}

[L-38]

In 1970 - a 93 year old passenger (SLF on his first airplane ride) returning back to his homeland in Colorado on a UAL B-737 LAX- DEN.

His original outbound trip from Colorado was via a CONESTOGA WAGON train, back when he was 12 yrs old in 1889.

(as relayed to me about a neighbor's grandfather).

[Redline]

Colonel Gaddafi's dead cousin...

[doodahdave]

108 metric tons of new Euros from Zurich to Athens.

We were told the day before we would be carrying "specialty bank paper".

I figured it out when we were met by several police vans full of guys dressed in black carrying awkwardly shaped gym bags.

They filled four trailers and drove off in a convoy.

[yambat]

12t potting soil, stones and palm trees to Luanda from Johannesburg in DC8, last week.

[ecureilx]

Did the 108T ship in one aircraft ??

Curious :ok:

[CargoMatatu]

Why not?

108T normal payload for a 747 :ugh:

[AircraftOperations]

Our company have flown such payloads in 747s before.

Hardly a long route for a 747, ZRH-ATH.

[ecureilx]

Relax guys.

I just conjured up an image of having to dump some cargo (as it happens in movies .. ) to reduce weight ... :} wonder what the natives would think of a shower of currency

I am not contradicting.

Cheers :ouch:

[Dan D'air]

??T

2003, BSG-BCN, a (thankfully heavily sedated) Rhinocerous.

[fesmokie]

Had to dump cargo once in a DC-3 between Agadez( Niger) and Tamenghest (Algeria) because we had lost a motor and we were way overweight. We had a motorcycle raceing team from Begium onboard originally but left them behind to get home on a different aircraft. We also had the old engine that I had changed in Agadez, on board as well as the raceing teams equipment. I had to throw out ( while in flight ) everything from generators, tools, drums of oil, motorcycles and parts. After I had everthing out the door we were barley able to maintain altitude so I was going to start taking the engine apart and throw it out too but...I had already threw out the ships toolbox.:ugh: The folks on the ground were probably very excited to see all this free stuff raining down on them.:}

[ecureilx]

But what an arrogant attitude, dumping cargo like that .. :E White man has no consideration for natives .. :}

Wonder what the natives were thinking of the metal god's gift .. :mad: :mad:

(a replay of "gods must be crazy")

> Hope it is not considered thread drift .. (just adding a note of pun)

[drivez]

America is friendly with gadaffe now. They're united in the war on terror so maybe beleivable.

[kc97drvr]

In the mid 50's our squadron was TDY to Upper Heyford in the UK and after 116 days we returned to the states. Our CO had bought a MG and found that our tanker was almost empty of strap down cargo so against all regs it was loaded at night and returned to Kansas. If Lemay ever found out we would have all been in deep you know what.

[Panop]

Working at LHR 1970 or 71 when the PanAm Round the World flight PA1 was still a 707 (so no containers) I had the fun of helping placate the London terminating pax in the Customs Hall who were waiting for a VERY slow delivery of bags.

What the pax couldn't see was, on the far side of the wall, everyone else from the PA Station Manager down, frantically trying to clean VERY smelly monkey pee and poo from the (usually) expensive luggage that had been unfortunate enough to be loaded before Istanbul where the thoughtful loaders had placed a shipment of a number of cages of (apparently) incontinent monkeys directly on top of said bags!

The effects could not all be erased :uhoh: and some quite expensive damaged bag claims followed.

[Cee of Gee]

CAA inspector - does that count!! :p

[jetdrvr]

Picked up three caged male lions around 1997 in AMS on loan from the AMS zoo to the Joburg zoo. FE went down into the front belly to look at them and came back white as a sheet. Apparently, he got very close to a cage and one bounced off the bars roaring at him.

[theRealFlyingNomad]

Flew a few time some "Weapon Guidance System" for "some guys" into some "very Oily country". Not too proud of it. The flights were officially done for a famous Big freight company. I initially tought it was just mail and computers. I resigned a few month later after discovering the dirty buisness..

I also had to do some schedule flights into Africa with our Medium size plane fully (to the top) loaded of 200 boxes containing 100 Day old Chikens each...at 3 USD per chiken. We had to be pretty carefull with the pressurisation: their tiny brain seems to be quite sensitive to abrupt changes of Pressure! (60,000 USD of noisy "pressure explosive"small stuff...better be smooth... :}).

[Lasiorhinus]

Approx 12 tonnes of US embassy material headng for Russia (cross load from a 747F to DC-8F).....not so strange but had a US guard.....due to 'allegedly' an incident that happens many years ago between Russia and the US..

That 'incident' wouldnt be commonly known as the Cold War, perhaps?:ok:

[ecureilx]

TRFN:

100 day old chicken - meaning Chicken ready to go ?? :} :} Did you wear gas masks, or had the windows open ???

Once I saw a shipment of 2 day old chick, and nobody wanted to enter the cargo plane after it landed - such a stink.

Apparently Chicken poo is highly corrosive ..

[theRealFlyingNomad]

Well, it was for sure not smelling rose, but still fine. Each box was packed of 100 "Day Old chicken"..(not "chikens of 100 days Old"!! hehe ) It was written on, even if I actually think they were a litle older than "one day", they already had nice yellow fethers..
Somehow as soon as we were at top of climb with a cabin altitude of 9,500 feet, they became totally silent...(but still stincky, for sure!)

TRF Nomad

[offa]

12-ton block of marble (well strapped down!)

[Romeo India Xray]

Was speaking to some of the lads here on the IL76 (to whom I am most grateful for the tour I got), and the stragest they had was a cargo of 300 Rwandan SLF. Seems they felt better about being 3 deep in the freight hold than 3 deep in the grave - cant say I blame them.

RIX

[King Chav]

Salman Rushdie ..... whilst down the back was a group of 17 large Pakistani men :)

[Safetyinspector]

I had the "Olympic Flame" on board.
With special case authorization from the german CAA.

[minigundiplomat]

A cabin full of boxes of opium resin.










Oh, and a policeman!

[Mikeb744]

Last year we have 3x 4 Tonne Rhinos :)

Air NZ Freigher ( Atlas B744F) Carried them from YMML, Melbourne Zoo - YBBN, They were trucked from Brisbane to Sunshine Coast ( Australia Zoo)

As for Day old Chicks, we handle them nearly nearly every second week in YBBN.
They come in from NZAA on NZ, tarmac transferred to PX for AYPY, on Pax aircraft, so down in the hauls.

[777AV8R]

24,000 lbs of golf balls on a Herc, flown to the Canadian high arctic to regain control of circulation in a gas drilling operation. The balls were pumped down the hole, then along came the next Herc with a load of peanut shells.....funny thing...it worked.

[jrstolport]

Approx 500lbs of cow dung from the outbound load of cattle.Was chewed out for not manifesting it inbound and not including on the wt.&bal!
A 450ib. horney gorilla
A noah's ark flt. to s. america with an handler who's last name was Hogfart.
Just a few.

[wonderdog]

47 tons of gold from Saudi to Switzerland.
Michael Jackson's stage gear including one large replica tank and a wardrobe sized container with a sticker on saying "Mikey's hair care".How big is a tub of hair gel ?
Disagreeable guys blindfolded and in orange jumpsuits.
1 ton of heoin.
Ostriches, an AN124 full of 'em from Afica to Belgium, not a sound from any of them the whole trip.

[Four Wings]

I'm just SLF, but I remember flying on a Comet to S'pore in 1953 there were several trays of day-old chicks in the galley (the hold not being pressurised or heated), and the older, skirted chicks told me that they regularly carried radioactive isotopes (for medical equipment) in special containers in the wing tips.
And when I had a car accident in Sierra Leone in 1963 a friend brought a complete front wing for my Ford Taunus from Monrovia, Liberia as carry-on baggage on a Viscount.

Then of course there was good old Aden Airways with mixed configuration 'DC3s' actually ex C47s (with original cargo doors) where you might be sitting next to a box of 0.303 ammunition or a spare bulldozer blade. My girl friend (great at chatting up the Agent) once got two Brit Govt passengers turned off, with their seats, to make room for the Arab chest she had just bought.

The saddest story was of the Cathay Pacific DC4 (their only 4 engine aircraft at the time) shot down by the Communist Chinese in 1953 because it was carrying French Government gold to the French Colonial govt in Saigon (to pay for the war) on their regular weekly service, just before Dien Bien Phu.

And of course there is the whole story of the huge airlift into Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War 1968-70. Everything imaginable was carried in, but only at night. We shipped in drums of bitumen for the runway at Uli-Ihiala, but I watched case after case of Heinekens being loaded alongside the CSM.

The only time i've seen an Aeroflot stewardess in tears was when their brand new Il18s were loaded with a cwt sack of flour on each seat in the Congo airlift Accra-Leopoldville (aka Kinshasa) in 1960.

[scottpe]

200 porcelain toilets in a C130 RAF Masirah to RAF Salalah! 140T Turbine PLUS 45T of spares for a Hydro project in Phoenix, AZ from Linz, Austria in guess what? A clue ....... not the C130!!

[muduckace]

We recieved a load for a MD-11 of steel bars about 4" in diameter and more than 20 ft long. The bars were stacked in sets of 6 and elevated with 2 or 3 stacks to fit male/female. It took us more than 12 hrs to get the load on.

After it was all locked down I thought of the possibility of these bars getting loose on landing and probably killing us all. The loadmaster agreed and demanded about a hundred more cargo straps to ind the load to the airframe and its self. It looked like a spider web when we were done.

After T/O I went back in the currier area and found the Loadmaster staring at the load through te net. The whole load settled and we spent the majority of the rest of the 7 1/2 hr flight from VCP to MIA tightening the load back down. It took the crew in Miami about 24 hrs to off load the aircraft. This was WOA, if you could fit it in we would fly it...

[muduckace]

Our customer wanted to get their bang for their buck shipping pigs, picked up a load of pigs in a MD-11 stacked on top of eachother. The pigs generated soo much heat the aircraft could not overcome it and it was about 100f in the cockpit. Half the load died. That crew threw out everything including their luggage. I picked up the jet 3 legs later and still had to wash my clothes 3 times to get the stench off.

[Rockitansky]

500 monkeys

[ClimbSequence]

Believe it or not
Bags full of cow's droppings

[muduckace]

Believe it or not
Bags full of cow's droppings

Can't help but calling B/S on that one.

[Old Photo.Fanatic]

I am SLF but when in the RAF I used to Hitchhike in uniform to and from Airshows.
One occasion in the 60s I managed a lift out of Coltishall after an Airshow.
Making may way home to the West country where I was then Stationed
It is still very sensitive so I will generalise on some aspects.

The A/C was an Argosy, static at the show but on return to the UK from a
Training stint around the Med.
Come the time to depart after the show as was the "practice"!!!! along with other departing aircraft the Pilot decides to show off with a max rate steep climb out .
Not a good idea as strapped down in the back, nexr to where I was seated was the Pilots private Car!!!!!!!!!. Road ready!!!!!
Very very much against Regs., the crew used it to run around at the ports of call.

So max tatical take off .steep angle, , pressure differences, result......
Petrol from the fuel tank overflows via the filler overflow outlet.
I then informed the loadmaster of Petrol swilling around the Cargo floor. ,and the smell of Petrol fumes filling the hold.
I had never seen someone go pure white with fright until then.
Talk about Panic. Full emergency routines inside the Aircraft, absolute minimum electrics etc..Unable to declare to ATC the "Situation"
So there was your truely .an undeclared passenger not on the Manifest.
sitting in a flying "Bomb" ,to say I was cra**ing myself was an understatement.
The hairiest moment I felt was on deployng the Landing gear, as I imagined sparks/static or what ,could blow us to hell and back.
Suffice to say we landed ok and the Loadmaster took me to one side and
forcibly told me that there never was a "Situation" and on pain of death to
keep quiet about it for years to come.
45 years have now passed so I feel I am safe to relate this tale.

[white44]

Did LTN/JER once with an Aztec full of them. Full overalls/windows open (well DV).

Itched and sneezed for days.Quill dust everywhere.

[oliema17]

my mum - she weighed a ton! :ok:

[eliptic]

35 tons of Euro notes from, well that I can't say, to, well can't say that either really. Never had quite so many, very heavily armed, police officers looking and scrutinizing me. Quite scary,


tip for the next time!! read the crew who had problem transported the "lose dog" haha;)

[shittykitty]

the 787. parts of it anyway

[spanish no fly]

Apart from dead-heading front end crew, 40 tonne of palm trees from FCO to:uhoh:............DXB for a golf course! Flown into FCO from either LAX/SFO by Alitalia 74 and tramshipped to our diesel8. Coals to Newcastle, anyone?:)

[CR2]

That reminds me of 60ft long palm trees from Maastricht (of all places) to Kuwait, for a hotel lobby IIRC. :confused:

[Rat Catcher]

Carried a very pissed off tiger in a C-206 once, interesting sounds from the back! :eek: Glad the cage was strong:E:E:E:ok:

[Lamb Shank]

200 Kapuchin Monkeys...the smell was horrible!

[L1011-500]

A helicopter

[rampman]

a mountain lion and 60 rabbits to dubai

[olandese_volante]

At least the mountain lion had something to snack on :p

[Nostone]

I once took a cat in a Hunter from Thumrait to Masirah. Had to stay low level of course. No oxygen mask for cat.

[TurningFinals]

I was speaking not long ago to a dispatcher who used to work for a cargo company at LHR.

B744F came on stand and the loaders opened one of the hold doors, and low and behold there stands a tiger, which had managed to escape its cage.

Needless to say, they closed the door asap! After a few times of opening and closing the doors for a look, the tiger wandered over to its cage and lay down. I don't envy the poor guy who had to leg it in and close the cage! :ok:

[ray cosmic]

we had once from FRA a couple Dobermanns in the FWD hold of a 737. Much the same story as above, really..:ok:

[C-N]

Can't help but calling B/S on that one.

Could be true, remember, those sh*ty stuff are holy for our hindu brothers. They could be building a swimming pool out of those in their palace.

Transporting radioactive materials and ammos from an EU country to Africa. pm me if you want the exact name of the country. Poor ops guys have difficulty obtaining the required overfly permits from enroute countries. All permits ended up with Diplomatic clearance.

[G-ONADS]

Doesn't compete with miscellaneous gorillas, giraffes, and killer wales but here is my $0.02.


President Mugabe from North Holt to Jersey and back (just had to make a deposit I guess.) in a BAC1-11
Lots of farting cadavers out of Dallas in a C402
Guns to Kazakhstan BAC 1-11
Boxes of Crabs and Crawfish from New Orleans regulars for us.
A diabetic prisoner Dallas to some prison hospital in Missouri, he had both legs amputated and was strapped into the back seat of a BE55 baron. On arrival and while waiting for the ground transportation to arrive we ordered pizza from the FBO and offered to share it with the guard. I asked if he wanted to stay by the aircraft and eat it there he replied "Naw lets go inside and eat, he a'int gonna run off"
An ironing board, and a few kids toys RAK to Heathrow, it's good to be the king.
A case of coke (cola) and a sack of potatoes from Dallas to Gunnison Co. I guess they don't sell it there.

Not exactly freight but.....
Katherine Zeta Jones LAS to VNY
Kiss
Jon Bon Jovi
Bruce Springstein & E Street Band
George Harrison
Jim Capoldi
Many pro ice skaters and NBA teams
Emerson Fittipaldi
Al Pacino

the list goes on

[doubledolphins]

Best bit of freight I ever had caried was a Merc. SLK, MAN to MBJ, allong with 328 pax. The loaders drove it into the forward hold off the scisors lift and then disconected the battery as if it was a wheel chair. (The fuel tank had about half a pint in it.) Of course the Jamaican loaders could not just drive it out at the other end because the car security system kicked in as soon as the battery was reconected. Not our problem as we were already in the beach bar, but the return crew were none too happy!

[slowto280]

DC-8 pax charter, middle of winter in Philly going down to the islands. Just prior to push back, my then girlfriend FA comes to the cockpit and says there is some strange thumping noise all the way in the back. Capt. wouldn't have it, but after several minutes talked him into checking. A loader had fallen asleep on some bags and the other guys had closed the door, not knowing he remained inside. Poor chap was in a panic obviously as his hands were bloodied from all the 'thumping'.

[superspotter]

Not strange just absolutely beautiful :)
A brand new Ferrari California, a mere £147000 worth from MXP to AUH, on it's way to a place called HOMEBUSH :\ NSW
http://newimages.fotopic.net/?iid=1yh327&outx=800&quality=80

I did take several pics of the car but in my opinion this is the best bit by far :ok:

[Helm737]

A kilogram of pure cocaine "accompanied by police for controlled delivery" from TXL to FCO.

Someone had ordered it somewhere in Paraguay, from where it was flown into LEJ by DHL. It was found during a routine spot check and handed over to the federal police. As its market value was estimated EUR 250.000,-, the German Federal Police decided to send it down to Rome on a normal passenger flight accompanied by a police officer, who was ordered to hand it over to the Italian authorities... Yeah, bye bye :D

The icing was the quetsions to us whether or not we preferred to keep it in the flight deck during flight...

[Woolsack]

Around 25 million of them. Miami to Brasilia on behalf of the Brazilian government for free distribution during Carnival at Rio, Salvador & Sao Paulo. This was one of two shipments which originated at Hong Kong. B.744-F.

[CL44BHX]

When I started shifting freight around the world the most common shipment being sent was Bull Semen (in refrigerated liquid nitrogen). Had one of the flasks crack on me when it was collected. You would not believe the mess it made on the van.

An absolute shed load (and I am talking millions upon millions) of bullets. I have sent them around the world (and back again).

Just two of the strangest things I have sent around the world.

[DOOBIE]

In 20 years working on the ground at Luton two cases spring to mind.

A box of 6 Penguins (not chocolate biscuits) on a regular BAC1-11 passenger flight to Shannon and a chartered DC3 to transport a Dolphin.

[November4]

Colonel Gaddafi's dead cousin...

Rudolf Hess on his final flight

[TacomaSailor]

I was a very naive and unwise investor in a bull semen partnership.

We owned some very fancy bulls and were shipping their semen to Packistan, Afganistan, ...stan, to help them improve their cattle herds.

The 20 limited partners finally realized that we were not going to make any money when the general partner flew home from one of those countries, he was to get payment for the seman that was not broken enroute, and was arrested at JFK for bringing back a lot of very expensive powder instead of a lot of thousand dollar bills. All we had to do was convince the DEA we were ignorant - it didn't take them long to realize we were also stupid!

I lost a very significant sum on that stupid idea - worse my 28 year old wife lost all confidence in my ability to manage our money. Twentysix years later I am still trying to convince her I can manage the money and it is safe for her to retire. ( I sold my business 10 years ago)

The REALLY dumb thing was that my father, a veternarian, was one of the world's experts in the area of third world cattle herd improvement and was a consultant for WHO. He begged me not to make that investment. But how can a 60 year old professional tell his 37 year old son anything?

Live and Learn?

[Basil]

TacomaSailor,
But how can a 60 year old professional tell his 37 year old son anything?
With difficulty - and, in any case, we all have to do our own thing.
I listened to my parents - up to a point.
Our children listened to us - up to a point.

Anyway, beautiful sailing area; similar to the Clyde estuary but on a rather grander scale :)

[Basil]

Oh, getting on thread, couple of young female gorillas, one of whom took a fancy to the FO and grabbed his hand - friendly like but FO got a bit of a shock (I would too).
Huge number of shaheens (Arabic for peregrin falcons?) coming aboard passenger GF L1011 in Karachi and crapping all over the place. Owners were mega rich/influential so that was OK.:rolleyes:

[hydroplane]

Just saw this on Dutch TV, a lot is in English:
Player omroep.nl (http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10798960)

or click: http://cgi.omroep.nl/legacy/player?/ceres/1/vpro/rest/2010/VPRO_1140429/bb.20100329.asf


Enjoy...
Pilot Crause Steyl, and Simon Mann on Tatcher, can be seen arround 20 mins from start of documentary

[Biggles78]

Not in the same leagues the rest of the posts but a gearbox for a broken down campervan in a PA28-181. Needed a front seat pax to keep C of G inside the envelope. Also did a differential for a different campervan as on another flight.

[chums4]

I hauled a plane full of Muslims for Eid al-Adha, some holiday. and one plane was full of the luggage, most of it was that water they get, don't know much about it but it was strange.

[JamesBiggles]

Picked a family on a tour around Africa in a chartered G5 I think. Anyway, all the pax boarded the C208 whilst I got to fly their luggage in BE58. They had just arrived in Durban from Cape Town and we were taking them to their private game lodge North of Durban. Their jet could not land there. Happily loaded all the contents and set sail in a manner of speaking. Arriving at said lodge we commenced unpacking the goods. One of the cool boxes seemed to swish about a bit when we unloaded it, so a rather fetching young game ranger'ess (female version, you get the picture) lifted the lid somewhat non-chalantly and nearly got here fingers clipped off by the biggest live lobsters I have ever seen, flown all the way up from Cape Town and freshly caught that same morning. Anyway, reckon her scream frightened them more than they frightened her and the lid was quickly replaced. Ahh said the chef, dinner has arrived. Glad those cretins never got out in the cruise!!:eek: Yikes!!

[AA SLF]

Southwest Airlines (SWA) finds a shipment of human skulls in their freight. Link to the story Airline seizes dozens of human heads - Life- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37754426/). This may shake a few cargo rats up a bit . . . . :eek:

[B737-pilot]

280 Kg of rocks in 10 bags on a pax flight.
Don't laugh....

[Unlucky Nelson]

Baby sharks from FAPE to FAJS for export. On another occasion a goat in a crate and a crocodile in the same hold right next to each other. Must have been great entertainment in that hold.......in the dark!

Strangest of all though was Jacob Zuma.........before he used to fly in South Africa 1.

111

[smallbee]

I once carried two baby elephants to Malaysia from South Africa:D:D

[gunit]

plane full of rubber dog **** outa honk kong!

[Anilv]

Full shipload of Barbie dolls from KUL to the US (can't remember where exactly) in 1995 on a Fedex (ex FT) B74SF.

Charter was from the Mattel (they have a factory near KUL) for the Christmas season.

On the day of the flight (departure around 2200local), the freight company AEI (now absorbed into DHL-Danzas-Deutschpost etc) had only 5 guys doing the palletising AND sending the pallets into the customs warehouse..it was very close but that wasn't the only problem!

They ended up with an extra lower-deck pallet! After loading the bulk compt (two trolleys) we broke down the pallet and loaded it into the bulk... we had some left over, what now?

Well the B74SF doesn't have a nose door like its purpose built freighter sisters, instead it has a kind of storage area, maintenance usually keeps stuff like cases of engine/hydraulic oil and even spare tyres. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Since none of us in KUL were qualified for B74F loadsheet (it was on the way out even then...:sad:), there was a load-master on board...we approached him and asked if we could load the overflow in the 'forward bulk' ..he asked "how many boxes do you have?" ... "a couple" was my reply!
To speed things up we pulled back the left side barrier on the airstairs and angled the belt loader so it reached the doorway platform.. We could do this as the cartons were not heavy... We were lucky there was a loadmaster on board, even if we had been qualified I think it would have been difficult to convince the crew!

We couldn't put it the overflow on a later scheduled flight as there was no paperwork (AWB-airwaybill) and the customs had already been 'cleared'.

Didn't delay the flight much too!

..................

Another charter I remember was when I was working in SIN with CIAS, a ground handling agent..There were a lot of interesting charters and one memorable one was by a forwarder called 'Airmark' if I remember correctly. This was a B747 of the IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) which was specially built as an aerial refueller but still had cargo capability. There was a 'boom operator' in the rear and positions T and S were sacrificed for this. The operated had a contoured couch and lay face down and operated the 'flying boom', remember theIran Air Force had F14 Tomcats! There was a guardrail around this area to protect the operator (from falling freight?!). Some of the aircraft had nose-loading but some had a refuelling receiver in the nose just below the cockpit window.. there was no nose-door and on the inside you could see the hose running down the side of the airplane.

Anyway ...to get back to the charter... The IRIAF brought along their own pallets.. these were military style 88x108ins pallet, not the normal 96/88 x 125ins you find usually... no problem as the aircraft was already configured for this and they had their own loading staff anyway. These military pallets came with their nets but as they were designed for C130 operations they came up very short..solution? drape the nets over the pallets and use jute rope and thread them between the edge of the nets and the base... about 2-3 feet!! Very iffy! A point of note..Military pallets do not use the stud track at the edge which accepts the single/double studs common on civillian ULDs, instead, the pallets have metal loops around the edges and the nets hook onto to them and are tightened like a strap.

The pallets were all built up on time and staged at the postion..

When the first pallet went it...it literally hit the roof! The pallet was built too tall.... this sometimes happens when pallets are not built up well, not a good start! After this was rectified, by the usual way, send a guy up to stomp on the cargo and re-tightening the net, it was found that the second, and third, and practically all pallets were over-height!

What happened was the forwarding agents gave the instructions to its staff as to the number of pallets and type/heights. The usual way the heights are specified is either 96 or 118ins ...the guys followed the instructions and measured the way they usually did (without any problems),from the floor of the pallet, WITHOUT taking into account the fact that the military pallet was about 2 inches thick! There was a lot of running around on the ramp on that day!

Anil

[teaboy1]

Last week took a Tiger from EMA to BFS for the zoo

[Bluebird]

Part of the remains of chess genius Bobby Fischer to Stockholm, after a court had decided on a DNA match of him and his "daughter" who´s family was after some good old cash since his death.

Turned out she wasn´t his daughter!

[NG_Kaptain]

Not a strange cargo per se but very odd crew baggage. One of my instructors at Seattle was ex Pan Am, he told me how on a London trip he saw a Mercedes sports car for sale, I can't remember the model, the price was right so he bought it. When he asked the LHR station manger about getting it shipped to the US the manager told him why not just put a crew tag on it and he would put it in the hold as crew baggage as they were positioning an empty 747 back to JFK.

[fulmar]

Thinking of cars in the freight hold, in the late 80's DHL/EAT purchased some CV580's from Summit in the US. One of the ramp managers in BRU on detachment from CVG, Mike S*****, (great guy by the way) arranged to import his VW on the main deck. It just, just, fitted in and we had a fun time getting it out again in BRU. The problem appeared when Mike took it for service. "What is this monsieur?" asked the VW dealer. "It's a VW Golf of course" said Mike. "No monsieur- it may look like a Golf but is a VW Fox built in the US for the US market and we have no parts for this!"

[Alber Ratman]

Inkjet bombs.. No DAC labels on those I bet!

[CGN32R]

Strangest freight?

I wouldn't consider Euros a strange freight, would you?

But maybe the amount...3 billions. :{

[Four Wings]

Ever seen an Aeroflot stewardess cry?

I was at Accra refuelling aircraft impressed into the UN Congo airlift in July 1960. Two brand new IL18s arrived as the Soviet contribution. They had been on Moscow - Prague service but had been ordered straight on to Accra, so still had cabin crew on board.
As pure passenger a/c they weren't much use for heavily equipped troops (USAF C130s did almost all the lift), so they were loaded with cwt (112 lbs in old money) sacks of flour, one on each seat. Flour everywhere. The Aeroflot girls were intensely proud of their new aircraft (they hadn't seen a Britannia till they got to Accra!), and yes, I saw the two stewardesses on the first a/c weeping at the top of the steps as bag after bag of flour was carried past them.
Incidentally, the Soviet Embassy paid for their fuel in gold roubles, causing me to mention this to the appropriate person in UK High Commission - what would the Soviets be doing with a ready supply of gold roubles in Ghana?
If anybody's interested I've got a few other reminiscences of the airlift, and a few photos of the a/c.

[Marwood]

Regular shipments of over 20 tons of Body armour from MAN to DXB, Final destination Bagdad.
Nothing strange in that except the said body armour was manufactured in
Oman! Shipped to LHR then by road to MAN then flown back to middle east. Has someone got soething to hide

[timzsta]

A few years back I did some Dispatching at EGSS. Came in late one afternoon for the evening shift and one of our Ramp Leaders, who had the broadest west country accent you can imagine regailed us of his day.....

"Well this morning I was doing the Cyprus, loading instructions said one piece at 100kg in the forward hold. Well with 10 minutes to go no sign of it. Now rules is ain't if, if it's cargo and don't turn up, don't f**king go does it? So we closed up cleared away, pushed back and f**ked off. Five hours later I got called into Boss's office, Andy I gota suspend ya. Party of twenty to Cyprus for a funeral, sandwhiches laid on for 200, no deceased".

So needless to say HUM's became the watchword over the coming weeks. So late one evening as the show was coming to an end most of us sat around the table in the rest room awaiting home time, with just another Cyprus going on in the background. Radio crackles to life

"Cyprus from ops"
"Go ahead"
"Malc, have you loaded that coffin yet?"
"Nooooooo"
"Whatever you do don't load that coffin. I've just had the undertaker on the phone and he thinks there's been a mixup at his end"

I've never laughed so hard with so many other people. I had to pull over on the way home because I coulnd't see where I was going for the tears in my eyes.

[FP2010NC]

hahaha that's a classic one - condoms to brazil! where were you flying from?

[Boerseun]

Flying a metal box "trommel", only one, from a mine in east-Angola to Luanda during 2001, in a Hercules C130, full of diamonds !!! :oh:

[Tasslehoff]

Boerseun: Welcome and nice to see a fellow Afrikaner on PPRuNe! I grew up in "die Baai", so very close to you.

Sorry back to topic now..

[747 forever]

my friend said during the 2010 world cup the british government sent 40 billion condoms down there to stop people getting aids. It was a load of boxes hehe

[haughtney1]

B777F

100 tonnes or so of wooden chair legs....dunno where the rest of the chairs were:eek:

[noperf]

Live rainbow trout to Red Dog mine in northwest Alaska.

[midiron]

Seems. as if animals are always the strangest freight. I once had a very large sled dog team in a very small airplane--Piper Chieftain. Most of the seats were out, so, looking back, it was all sled, bags, 13 dogs, and one musher. After not too long, two of the females fell out, and the view looking back was just teeth, claws and flying fur. Quite a sight, lots like a really bad bar fight. The musher solved it all by literally wading into the fray and biting one of the offending dogs as hard as he could on her right ear. After that, all was quickly quiet, and he looked up at me and grinned.

Otherwise, a 747 should hold about 170 pregnant cows. But, when that mission suffers big delays, those ladies start having big problems if they are not off-loaded and watered. One of the most entertaining experiences of my career so far was watching my flight engineer trying to coax our local handlers into recruiting some willing local rancher into helping us. Which they did, and all was well. Nearly 200 pregnant cows on a Belgian cargo ramp is quite a sight.

[Desert185]

I had six cruise missiles on one flight and a live, Navy seal (not the human kind) on another. Both during military charter flights.

[Desert185]

Flying a metal box "trommel", only one, from a mine in east-Angola to Luanda during 2001, in a Hercules C130, full of diamonds !!! :oh:



I did that with TIA/Transamerica Herc's during the latter 70's through the mid 80's, while based @ Dundo.

[Shell Management]

Bull semen packed in a liquid nitogen dewar. Delivered by armed guards.

[mastafreighter]

Every Monday, we carried 15kgs (gross weight) of Pigs semen from London to Denmark so a) I guess Danish bacon is actually English and b) the supplying farmer must have had an enertaining weekend.

Also carried British Olympic rowing teams "boat" to Ibiza for training but even on a Caledonian Tristar , it was too long to get in forward hold. We ignored the shippers instruction to "cut it in half" but that is exactly what they did then stuck it together at destination.

The USA used to buy it's surgical gloves from Taiwan and on arrival, irradiate them to kill all bacteria but their facility was broken. So gloves were sea freighted to the USA, we flew them to the UK, they were irradiated (told it was Sellerfield) and then we flew them back. According to agent, Gamma radiation kills all bacteria but not dangerous to aircraft or pax.

[TSUP]

Got sent over to DSA to offload a full B737 QC of very angry lions !!! Very strange seeing two blokes walking around the ramp with shot guns

[plasticAF]

TSUP

Normal day offloading the pax then was it?
even the two legged are at least grumpy

[ecureilx]

Libya: RAF flies in 1st part of £950m cash to help kick start economy | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032511/Libya-RAF-flies-1st-950m-cash-help-kick-start-economy.html)

[dc10b747fe]

DC-8.

Used to fly Sea World charters around the USA. Fairly standard load:

seals
sharks
penguins
dolphins
-all on the same load

whales
polar bears
etc.

Great times!

[jetdrvr]

22,000 pounds of dynamite from Ilopango to CHS during the Salvadoran war in a Herc. Military contract. We didn't worry about it, because if it had gone off, we wouldn't have heard a thing.

[MarkerInbound]

Four hundred fifty kg of distilled water in 5 gallon jugs going from the the mid east to the USA. I guess they couldn't boil water in the the US at that time.

[NG_Kaptain]

A courier with five carry on bags. each with 75kg of gold. From a Middle Eastern country to Libya.

[Loose rivets]

29,000 chicks. DC3. Pipes from cabin to our side windows to vent the poor things. 16 hours and our necks red from the particles of feathers.


Worse, more boxes than you could shake a stick at on DC3 SEN to Rochester. Full of WORMS. When hearing came back on shutdown. (it did then) you could hear a kind of slime noise. You think slime doesn't have a noise? Fly a million worms and say that. Bloody fishermen.


6 X 40 gal drums of Petrol to a colleague who's fuel had not covered his surprise diversion. Got permission to do allsorts when we needed to get the oil out of the sea.

[mixture]

A courier with five carry on bags. each with 75kg of gold.

And I thought BA were generous with 2 x 23 kg !

Did he really carry them on ?

More to the point, did he stow them correctly in the overhead lockers or underneath the seat infront of him ? :cool:

[Globalstream]

A human head on ice. For medical research rather than transplant I supposed.

[flywithme44]

saw a photo from a friend flying cargo posting a photo on facebook with cash only in the back of his A330
crazy stuff

[750XL]

Most memorable flight I've ever done has to be 900 pigs on the main deck of a 744F on their way to China. I can still smell them to this day :{

[Aero Mad]

About a ton of polish (in lots of little bottles, boxed) for onward shipment to an Iranian car manufacturer. Flew it from ACI to GCI on three flights in a PA28. It had missed the boat to Guernsey and was already late, so that got it on its way fairly promptly.

[John21UK]

6 Indian guys that had bought out the whole busines class. (12 seats) Each had two massive suitcases that were too heavy to carry by one person. 6 seats had this massive suitcase on them and the rest between those 6 seats as they were too heavy and big for the overhead bins. Content: cash money. :ok:

[Airguitar]

5 Live Zambezi sharks in a massive water tank from JNB to AMS

[JRpilot]

800kg of Gold from a gold mine strip to the international airport on a weekly basis in Ghana in a L410!

And a friend of mine carried 2 baby lions on a Hawker800 from Dubai to Sana and they destroy part of the aircraft interior, while playing and p...

Happy days!

[E.A.T]

Not really strange but unique and carried in a 20 tonne jet--

A paper bag with 5 Rolex watches and a cell phone

A small envelope with 50,000 Euro in 500 euro notes

[WASPERNATOR]

Fergie - the then Duchess of York on an Emery DC8 from STN.

My job was to show her around the AC and introduce her to the crew. The main deck was full of relief supplies.

Once I'd given her a quick tour - we got back on the ramp to meet some local dignitaries and the airport managers.

Discretely she then asked me 'What do I do if I need the bathroom?'

The thoughtful crew hastily erected a little curtain to protect her modesty in said on board facility.

[RHRP]

Unless you are being particularly unkind, the D of Y counts as baggage rather than freight.

RHRP

[CargoMatatu]

:D:D:D:D:D

[Captain Chaos]

I did the trials to get Mrs Thatcher to the Falklands after the conflict. Internal fuel tank at the front, and caravan in the back for her. No probs until the fuel tank was filled!
Put ballast on the ramp, was OK until the internal tank was empty!
The LM had to move weight during the flight to FI to keep the a/c in trim!

[aergid]

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Original Car (always wondered why ti wasnt just flown over on it own maybe ETOPS regs :ok:)

Basking Sharks in a tank

Nobbled Race Horses (well they were once i fed them polo mints)

Pigs and I agree with 750XL on his comment - BTW word of advice you cant tell which direction a pig is gonna pee due to its curly wurly bits :uhoh:

Big Cats going to from zoo - those AVI boxes physically rocked when being loaded...

US Military Rescue Submarine complete with its own MACK truck and trailer. The trailer was lined with snap on type tool boxes all brand new (very nice)...

And while in Military the famous "bucket of sunshine" (those that know, know. Those that dont, dont :mad:)

[rjtjrt]

Capt Chaos

Was inflight refuelling not consideed if VIP aboard?

John

[Alan T Luto]

Hi,
I was at Accra in July 1960 with the Beverleys and Britannias, in charge of the RAF Ground Crew-- we were doing the Airlift to the Congo--I would really like to swap notes with you. Alan luto

[email protected]

[DADDY-OH!]

300 Kgs of pure Columbian Cocaine in Bulk Hold 5 with an RAF Police Alsatian guarding it. Oh & a former Chief of The Defence Staff with his good lady wife, all on the same flight... MPN-ASI.

And before the dissenters start, it was part of a seizure from a Chilean trawler that put into Fitzroy with engine trouble on its way up to Europe.

[booze]

800 kgs of condoms on a UN-WFP flight from Kinshasa to Bukavu, DRC on a L410. :}

The surprise came the next day when on our way back to the airport from the hotel saw local kids selling peanuts wrapped in condoms... :ugh:

We basically flew just over 7 hrs there and back, burnt 2100 kgs of JetA1, paid an average of 800-1200USD worth of landing/navigation/parking fees at each fuel stop (3 in total) and wasted 2 full days in the midst of a Ebola pandemic where all the resources would've been needed to provide humanitarian flights planned by the same organization.

All for 800 kgs worth of plastic wrap for black market peanuts - founded by the United Nations. Go figure... :D

[falconx]

BOEING 727

A sole PMC palet with a box 80cm x 80cm...guess what it was

[Limeygal]

Dan Dare took Haile Selassie's silver throne to Addis

[Siguarda al fine]

Two convicted murderers from Kalemi to Lubumbashi. They were trussed up like Buxted chickens, with fence wire, handcuffs, nylon cord and covered by an armed guard. The guards weapon was empty as was the magazine, orders from me, but the guy stood steadfast pointing his AK at them for the whole flight. These two had boarded a Tanzanian ferry from a small boat at night to rob passengers, many jumped overboard in panic and were never seen again. If I remember right they were responsible for 14 peoples demise.

[RTN11]

A case of live bees.

Of course, half of them escaped and took their anger out on the loaders.

[Michel34]

Several Times a 20 tons Pay load of ...... Euros bills ...... From the european central bank to various european countrys !

And also Many Times 10 tons ...... Of Breitlings !
From Basel to Bruxels or Leipzig !

..... Guessed who was the carrier ?

[Varipitch]

Had Emperor Bokassa on board mit grand coach.
He shook hands on completion of flight and Capt counted his fingers after
to ensure he still all of 'em
Not long after Bosakka was 'done' for cannibalism
Main course ?

[Desert185]

Diamonds from Dundo to Luanda during the Angolan civil war...I think. :cool:

[Soteria]

Live sharks being transported from Brisbane to Melbourne, Australia.

[geeohgeegeeoh]

My niece worked for a freight forwarder on the phone lines, and said she'd dealt with a live shark missing in transit. Maybe I should hook you two up and see if its the same one...

[halas]

Had three Ostriches today?

Just a pax flight.

But accompanied by 56Kg gold and 230Kg bank notes.

halas

[David Charlwood]

Two live dolphins from Rimini to Exeter in a C-47 Dakota.

[ClassCbird]

That is criminal! That is worse than the economy cabin of an EK A380!

[harrryw]

Emirites? or Oman?

[Tu.114]

A jerry can of Diesel. Vienna to Dresden. Both cities well equipped with petrol stations.

[Miss F]

Horse semen.

[Caboclo]

PortVale, is there anything to stop those camels from moving around and shifting the CG? How many gallons of urine did you drain out of the belly after that flight?

[Skywalker4551]

I was ground handling at Leeds during the 1970s when we had at different times a strike by seamen and by dockworkers which led to some interesting loads. An Icelandic outfit (Frachtflug if I remember correctly) based 2 x DC7s for the duration of hostilities and kept them going almost 24 hours a day.

Ships were discharging in Antwerp so we got aircraft loads of shirts, slippers household stuff (pretty much everything we still import today). Memorably 649 cases of Australian Granny Smith Apples, when the man from the market came to collect he would only take 600 as that was his order, the balance were there for wastage. We were eating beautiful apples for weeks.

A ships prop shaft on a Sterling DC6 swing tail (do I remember that correctly? - long time ago) with no means of offloading it, so we came up with some sort of device with slings and pullys and a mobile crane, one end suspended from the crane (which could only lift half the weight) the other resting on a pallet dolly on 10 ton forklift that had to be weighed down with as many people as possible that climb on the back, all synchronised to move at the same time. Modern Health & Safety men would have loved it.

An Alaska Hercy to load Polo Mints, and late one Saturday afternoon a Constellation with horrible squeally brakes with a load of Refractory Bricks. The only one I ever saw flying and no camera!!.

Happy days.........

[vortexadminman]

:ok:seeing those goats reminds me of a trip where the humans looked the same.In fact all the flights i have done they look like that...... is it my flying ......

[hydroplane]

Rumours have it "Lamas" are been shipped with B747s (Moldava's ER-BAM or Pakistans AP-BIO/BKS) time to time from Ostend to Misrata &Tripoli for the local pet shops. Anyone with pictures? BTW were is AP-BIO?

[45989]

37 tons of Saudi Rials over and over...LHR-JED No serial No,s tho:ugh

[nicolasbta]

:D:D:D:D
Fantastic threat!

[ChickenHouse]

450 kilograms of frogs to a remote ranch, with even some swamp to keep them happy during flight, in half open frames in a Caravan. Guess what, Bose A20 ANR does not work against croaking ... controller almost wet his pants, because he got such a laughing fit on that permanent disturbance from the little beasties.

Got my assignment for Monday and it says "honeypots and horse semen", so I expect the recipient be Winnie the Pooh on a mare in heat. ;-).

[172driver]

Some of you will shortly have an interesting load, see here (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/world/africa/33-lions-airlift-south-american-circuses-to-african-sanctuary.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=2&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F04%2F29%2Fwo rld%2Fafrica%2F33-lions-airlift-south-american-circuses-to-african-sanctuary.html&eventName=Watching-article-click)

Just keep the crew meals in a secure place :E

[The AvgasDinosaur]

A ships prop shaft on a Sterling DC6 swing tail (do I remember that correctly? - long time ago) with no means of offloading it, so we came up with some sort of device with slings and pullys and a mobile crane, one end suspended from the crane (which could only lift half the weight) the other resting on a pallet dolly on 10 ton forklift that had to be weighed down with as many people as possible that climb on the back, all synchronised to move at the same time. Modern Health & Safety men would have loved it.

KAR-AIR Finland had a swing tail DC6 and I think Aviaco Spain had one for a spell. As far as I recall all Sterlings DC-6Bs were pax configuration.
SABENA did a couple of swing tail conversions to DC-4/C-54s but I think they finished up in The Congo shortly after completion.
Be lucky
David

[A Squared]

Sabena converted 2 DC-6's to Swing Tail. One was for KAR AIR and the other for Spantax. They both were operated by other operators before ending up at Northern Air Cargo in Alaska. One was wrecked in the North Slope Oil fields and the other eventually withdrawn from service. I have heard rumours that the remaining swing-tail was acquired by Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife and is operating again.

[MIA_SIMON]

-2 X 40ft boats on a 747-400F
-1 X 32ft boat on a 747-8F
-YPC connected 20foot pallets that carried a crate containing airplane wings for embraer
-26ton generator on the SCD of a 747-400

[Basil]

450 kilograms of frogs . . Bose A20 ANR does not work against croaking ... controller almost wet his pants
Hilarious!

[750XL]

Had a couple of tons of silicone breasts the other day

[Basil]

Had a couple of tons of silicone breasts the other day
She must have been a big lass! ;)

[MIA_SIMON]

8 Q7 pallets of Miller highlife to Bogota Colombia, from Miami

[Anilv]

Bet there were a few cases missing when you arrived!

:D

Anil

[rogerg]

Live dolphin from LHR to Santago in Spain in a Beech 18. It was in a sling with an attendant looking after it. I think it did most of the navigating!!

[Wingsoffury]

Live Kangaroos to Erbil, Iraq.

[SweetComanche]

Live Kangaroos to Erbil, Iraq.

The Kurds have a zoo there, looks like it's becoming a tourist spot, even with isis just some mile away.

[No Fly Zone]

Like many, I've read a FEW of these posts over the years. Last evening, bored to tears and facing a home task that I did NOT want to do, I plowed my way through all of them. Now, nearly 24 hours later, I'm still LMAO about many of them.
In the end, cargo does not argue, as is common with SLF. The odors may be strange and potent at times and as anyone, foo or not will realize, in some world regions the cost of air freight is insignificant to the customers, especially if their goods are shipped NOW. I think I'm missing something important about such people.
IMO, Freight Dogs is one of the most hilarious sub-sections on this site, or at lease has that potential. This driver is now retired for some years and it would be untrue to consider myself a Freight Dog, I do not. I may have stayed too long at the fair, but the logs reflect only TWO all-freight flights over the decades. (Sure, I know the basics of Wt., Ba and C.G., but I'd have begged, borrowed or stolen to get a good Load Master if I could. "Oh, you don't need one! The Dispatch computer does ALL of that for you." And if it breaks down?
If there are one or two or three components missing from so many of these replies, they might be 1) Some sense of date, 1945 - or 2015 makes a BIG difference, 3) Aircraft type, and even 4) Origin/destination/routing. Flesh it out a little guys & gals as it would make for far more amusing reading.
I know that this section was not really intended to be humorous, but it darn sure it! My sincere thanks for all 418 replies. This is FUN, if often silly reading on a dull evening. I've also noticed that the replies tend to arrive in spurts; almost nothing for weeks on end, followed by a flood of new entries... NFZ

[halas]

After a spate of potentially disastrous FUBAR's, the mob l work for has employed a heap of load masters to mitigate the problems of automation, that you quite accurately point out.
Wouldn't say they are all good, but it reassuring that someone is overseeing whats going on "back there".

15 amphibious Jeeps ($100,000ea) LAX - CPH - DXB. Did the second sector.

halas

[spanish no fly]

Palm trees from California, for a golf course under construction.:) The trees were transhipped in FCO, destination..........DXB.:confused: Evidently the local palms were the "wrong type." :ouch:
IIRC there were three separate flights of 40t. each.:eek:

[airnostalgia]

Flew a DC-3 charter from Dallas to Houston to carry a 727 radome from Houston to New Orleans. In that day the -3 was the only airplane available with a cargo door large enough to take it. It weighed maybe 10 kilos.

[A Squared]

Flew a DC-3 charter from Dallas to Houston to carry a 727 radome from Houston to New Orleans. In that day the -3 was the only airplane available with a cargo door large enough to take it. It weighed maybe 10 kilos.

Had a similar one. Front section of an airbus engine cowl from Atlanta to Minneapolis. If I recall correctly, it was only 1500 lb, including the crate, which isn't much of a load for a Herc.

[Tandoor1]

:eek: When I was flying light twins around East Africa, we would have dead bodies often. Sometimes they were in coffins, sometimes in body bags. One of my colleagues was flying a body down to Mombasa from Nairobi. The front right seat of the Cessna 402 had been removed and the body bag was lying beside the pilot. In the descent the body sat up, let out a long sigh and slowly lay down again. It was only expanding gasses being released but it really freaked him out.:ooh:

[HughBenhad]

Exit stage left

[Lozq]

Load instruction a couple of years ago placing the following items in the forward compartment of a B712...

Radioactive Goods
Live Horse Semen
HUM

All you'd need is some solid turbulence, a frayed tiedown or two, and voila - mutant zombie centaurs!

[Dan Winterland]

Had a couple of tons of silicone breasts the other day

Sounds like most of my flights with Virgin Atlantic.

[Dan Winterland]

A four engine jet to fly one computer chip.
2 live white tigers (very sedated - I stroked one!)
A drill shaft for the oil industry. It fitted in a 747 with an inch to spare. (The loader mentioned it had been designed to fit the 747).
Llamas and deer from AMS to DXB.
5 tonnes of used banknotes - which went straight into an incinerator on arrival at destination.
A prisoner who was wrapped from neck to feet in gaffer tape. (They were taking no chances with him).
2.5 tonnes of gold in hold 5 of a 747 which didn't appear on the manifest for security reasons. (Made the rotate very quick).
110 tonnes of Hong Kong 10 dollar coins. The aircraft looked mostly empty as the pallets were loaded to about 4 ft high.
110 tonnes of Beaujolais Nouveau to Japan.
Crates of live crabs from Dhaka to Shanghai. The crates were plastic, the crabs escaped by snipping the crates with their pincers. There were crabs running all over holds and the ramp.
The Ferrari F1 team.
Armoured cars - listed as luxury cars!

[bluesideoops]

Two spring to mind:

1) 'A' Mango to a remote bush camp to improve a russian oligarchs breakfast experience

2) an old fella turned up for a flight with a goat and we informed him that we were not authorised to carry live animals....by the time we had dealt with the other freight and came back, the goat had duly been slaughtered and was lying in a pool of its own blood and the old guy asked 'can I take it now bwana' :uhoh: - well we put a plastic sheet on the floor of the cargo pod and off we went

[FITD]

Being a former freight animal I am amused by many of the previous listings, some of which I have also moved around the world. The one flight I never got my head around was a flight when I/we moved an oversized septic tank from the United Sates to Nigeria of all places! Most odd.

Still it paid my salary...

[West Coast]

Was the tank new or well used?

[MitrePeak]

Flew 30 ton of dynamite into iraq around 2010 ?....was for mining in the northeast of the country....the detonators were in the lower hold. Dolphins,camels,horses,cattle,goats,bees, cash..lots of it !

[parafinburner]

I could tell you what the strangest cargo I ever carried was, but then I would have to shoot you. lets just say it involved flying under the cover of darkness, flanked by 2 nice shiny silver jets and we flew over a lot of sand.............:mad:

whoop whoop pull up - ;)
Yes we all know what MOONSHINE Is the answer is who had it

[parafinburner]

Guess we all need Moonshine in Saudi and other dry places to quench the thirst

[HappyBroker]

Chartered a AN124 from EMA to ARN with 500kg only - Air intake Cowl Assy 345x345x202cm

Few flights of day old chicks SOB-ASM

coffin, twice

[Dufo]

4kg of AOG material.
Equipment? B744F..

[cargosales]

Not exactly strange freight as such and no, I wasn't flying, but how about using a corporate jet to get a dozen car windscreen wiper blades from Germany to Detroit?

Totally true story and I will name neither party for obvious reasons, but ...

.... for once Teutonic efficiency hadn't been in operation when their new car models were shipped out there for the 20?? motor show....Err, just sans windscreen wipers = last minute panic and a very happy charter broker, who paid for our business lunch, after gleefully explaining the details!

[Falcon99]

A DC-3 load of empty new coffins from Brisbane to Sydney due to coffin makers strike in Sydney.

[Timmy Tomkins]

Guess we all need Moonshine in Saudi and other dry places to quench the thirst
Carrying Mili equipment into a Middle Eastern desert, we would purchase various bottles of thirst quenching liquid and stow it under the cargo floor. The soldiers assisting with the unloading were good at solving puzzles and oddly it had all gone after unloading and all without a direct word being spoken. An especially welcome game at Xmas

[Four Turbo]

A load of water/acid fire extinguishers to FI. Very heavy as they were shipped full of water. Doh!

[eeeaddict]

Are there crews that still switch into pajamas in air?

[3wheels]

Not a freight dog but an executive jet pilot. Was tasked to fly 1000 car steering wheels from UK to Spain.
Apparently they ran out due to a strike.

[Ayrton]

Are there crews that still switch into pajamas in air?

oooooh yes

[IrishatHeart]

Just wondering what the starngest thing you have ever had when handling cargo. Be it a coffin or gold or such.
Do you get any extra money or do you just get sweet FA for it.

Young elephants from Sri Lanka to Japan in a DC8. Obviously first time flyers. No known safe tranquiliser was available and they could have easily kicked their way out of the fuselage at any stage of the flight, especially on spool up for take-off! Extra money - you must be joking.

[Matt48]

Heard about this from a former GF in the airfreight business back in the early '70's, a light plane was bringing a loaded coffin and other small packages from Mt Isa to Brisbane, and had a fuel stop in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, at altitude about 20 mins later, the pilot, the only 'living' thing on board experienced a nudge on the shoulder, fearing the worst, he slowly turned, to see a black cat, it must have snuck on board during refuelling earlier. Much relief. !

[AusCaptain]

Weirdest **** I ever moved was a dugong. Like a sea cow. All 900lbs strapped into some weird plywood frame with a few handlers to squirt her with water and damp towels. Made a hell of a mess.

[visibility3miles]

'World's Loneliest Elephant' Moving To Sanctuary, With Help From Cher

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/27/939509981/worlds-loneliest-elephant-moving-to-sanctuary-with-help-from-cher


Kaavan the elephant has been languishing in poor conditions in Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad since 1985, according to the animal welfare group Four Paws International. He was brought there as a gift from Sri Lanka at 1 year old..On Sunday, Kaavan will move to an animal sanctuary in Cambodia, where he will be able to socialize with other elephants.

..."Transferring an adult elephant on a plane is something very, very rare," said Four Paws spokesperson Martin Bauer. Previous transfers he knows of have been much shorter distances between zoos in the U.S.

"An elephant transfer by plane on this scale I think has never happened before, so we are writing history here," he told NPR.

Or maybe not, but it's a good sound bite.

[SaulGoodman]

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/27/939509981/worlds-loneliest-elephant-moving-to-sanctuary-with-help-from-cher




Or maybe not, but it's a good sound bite.

who is doing this charter?

[visibility3miles]

I don't know.

[Timmy Tomkins]

Are there crews that still switch into pajamas in air?
Shorts & Tee shirt in the tropics for sure

[Self loading bear]

who is doing this charter?

Aviacon Zitotrans

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/634x423/eda585c7_5243_4a82_99f0_1ffce8bacf66_a624aa213a90cb2ea7e1602 03decc5f4ce699e3f.jpeg

[topspeed]

Anyone dropped a space ship from a plane ?

[Lux747]

Are there crews that still switch into pajamas in air?
Ha Ha would love too :O

[oceancrosser]

5000 minks on a 757F from Billund to Gander. Truly awfully smelly passengers! As luck would have it, YQX closed on us and we diverted to St. Johns (YYT) where the b****y ctitters were offloaded. Felt like incinerating my uniform after this flight.

[ShyTorque]

I was once tasked to pick up an entire inboard flap from a three week old Boeing 747. The entire thing had fallen off that aircraft as the flaps were lowered during the IGS to the old Kai Tak airport, Hong Kong.
Strange thing was, it was lying slap bang on the piano key markings of the then not yet commissioned CLK airport!
It was far too long to fit in the S-70 cabin and the CAD reps who had tasked us wanted me to put it in a cargo net and fly it underslung. I refused, because it would be a dangerous load - after all, it was meant to fly....
We fitted it across the cabin, "P stropped" to the floor and facing upside down and backwards. Flew OK at 50 kts with both doors open and we safely recovered it to its intended destination at Kai Tak.

[Flyboy_SG]

40 Juvenile Adult elephants from Africa to shanghai.
Less strange ones are A320 engines, horses etc.

[DeltaT]

A few coffins over time (HUM), first one I saw I didn't know what it was in the dim light, as they are covered in muslin cloth, fortunately a loader told me right before I was about to step on it to reach my bags.
Tractor parts, flowers for a florist show.
Full pallets of newspapers, the normal plane had gone tech and we were called in. Our plane didn't have floor rollers so each pallet had to be trolley jacked in.
Another airline I worked for, in the pax underbelly I recall they once transported live bee hives, on another occasion a live leopard for the zoo. The pilots sent a acars that the cockpit smelt of pussy...

[Geriaviator]

When a PPL flew himself into a misty hillside his fellow club members borrowed a coffin from the local undertaker to prove it would fit into a Partenavia. It did -- just about -- and as the deceased didn't mind a bit of a squeeze they flew him home.

The same airfield witnessed the arrival of three pedigree sheep in the back of a Cherokee Six -- I don't know how they were confined as cargo did not include a sheepdog ...

My Paro needed overhaul of its wobbly prop at Scottish Aviation in Prestwick. To avoid its hefty landing fees I fitted my prop into a friend's MS880 which easily managed a short grass strip some 20 miles south. My friends at SA met me with their families which I took for a brief joyride to see their houses, they left with my prop wedged between and over their apparently happy kids, and my beautifully rebuilt prop was returned the same way.

[Argama]

oooooh yes
OF COURSE!
And by the way:
700 small foxes into Russia
Usual police tanks into Africa
and across the Atlantic a ferry flight with only a couple of O-rings for a fuel pump for a stuck 76

[Bill Macgillivray]

Live oryx in Oman.