What have you carried?

[Dark Skies]

Hi all you other Freight Dogs!

I was wondering what 'strange' and wonderful things you have all carried?

I suppose the oddest thing that we ever carried was a Tiger!
He was sedated and of course in the required 'Lock Up'

He was as good as gold but I thought I would ask some of you guys to pass on what stories you have about the weirdest things you have hauled across the miles?

Look forward to hearing........



------------------
'Thats not Flying! Thats just falling with style'

[Elguapo747]

How about 13 pallets, 85,000lbs :mad: of cargo to go to the Middle East--and not one pallet above the kneecap.

Once returned from same place and flew non-stop from Dharan to North Island NAS--triple Air Refuel, 23&1/2 hours flying time. When we arrived we still had to remain on the aircraft while cargo was downloded.

The company I was just laid off from has flown monkeys from Africa to Atlanta--were they were met by the CDC in full body suits, to transport the AIDS infected annimals to the center--all the crew was told was to be carefull around them http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif.

------------------
El Guapo 747
(Wow that is a BIG ONE!!)

[This message has been edited by Elguapo747 (edited 19 May 2001).]

[CargoRat2]

Excellent idea.
-Nasty load: 29 maindeck/9 lowerdeck pregnant cows to KWI. You should have seen the state of the airplane; sh*t running down the walls. I got hit once or twice (watch it when they cock their tails!)
-Big. We carried the 2 catamaran yachts to Kona/Hawaii for the Waterworld movie. I loaded that one on a freezing November morning -15C. 60 something feet long.
-Heavy: 38T generator on a 40ft pallet to SCL.
-Whale from BCN zoo to SAN Sea World, 20T.
-New currency & 6 armoured Mercedes to KGL. Rwanda went down the toilet 6 weeks later.
-Rhinoccerous (in a STRONG box!)13T.
And the funniest one I DIDN'T do: 100T gold bars MNL-GVA. Charterer couldn't come up with the money for the flight...



------------------
rgds Rat

[compressor stall]

8 kegs of beer when an aboriginal community ran out. (roads shut 'cos of the monsoon)

A plane load of frozen Goannas (4 foot long lizards) to be eaten at a funeral feast.

[Metro man]

Anyone admit to carrying "agricultural machinery" in civil aircraft ?

[Dark Skies]

Hi MM,

Agricultural Gear eh?

I am afraid that happened to me several years now.

Out of the blue in Africa! I was told crates of tractor parts, who am I to go and prize the bloody crates open?

The manifest stated machine parts!!.

What it had omitted was the second word Machine GUN Parts, all together a hefty 40 tonnes of weapons of war including AK47s, Uniforms and shoulder launched anti-aircraft units!!

What a quick turnaround.... we returned empty!

You can do nothing else but trust the manifest sometimes, makes you wonder just what some people actually carry without knowing it!

Should have realised of course it was Angola!!!


------------------
Remember'Freight is the Hunter'

[ragspanner]

You could make a delicious & nutritious beverage from some of the stuff i've seen spilt on the main-deck!,how about live eels in a delicious bull seamen broth,with just a 'soupcon' of fluid leaking from a container of 'human infective agent' ( HIV,or Hep 'C'!) to garnish !.
MMMMMMH ,good to the last drop & no seasoning required !.

[The Guvnor]

Very early on in my career we flew books out of SIN on a 707. Of course, as everyone knows, paper is about as dense and heavy as lead - but seeing that the pallets only came up to my knees, I suggested that we put more cargo on. Luckily, my partner was considerably wiser and countermanded that suggestion pronto!

We've also carried a lot of VAL cargo; ranging from gold to banknotes; as well as diesel/fuel oil in leaking drums.

As for earthmoving equipment/green medicine/agricultural equipment ... you might think that; but I couldn't possibly comment!

The worst cargo we ever carried was a shipment of pigs going down to West Africa - God, what a stink!! Took months for the aircraft to be flyable without judicious use of oxygen masks... :) :) :)

[Icarus]

About 12 years ago out of MAN to BWN, 24 Rolls Royce and Bently cars. All birthday presents for the Sultans offspring.
Two additional cars (believed to be Ferrari's) but no one knew as they were crated up.
Some people have all the fun!

[critcaact]

Live rainbow trout in an aerated container. They were to be placed in the output pond of a zinc mines refining facility in arctic Alaska. This was supposed to prove that the water quality was acceptable.

Lots of gold ore.

Garbage from the company's facility on the north slope oilfields. It was cheaper to haul it out than it was to dump it there.

[Capt Snooze]

Live Sheep TO New Zealand!

:) :)

[RampTramp]

MM,

Back when I was a lot younger & with a company long gone we did our fair share of '9mm agricultural machinery', some Govt. to Govt. & some not so kosher.
Then there was 27 ton of grass seedlings with a max 24 hour life. Flying Tigers (Ah a name to remember) bought it out of LAX to LHR & we took it to MCT where there were a few hundred locals with dibbers all ready to get this stuff in the ground!
Same destination for a complete circus, big top, animals, the lot. Due to Southern UK closing in fog for a couple of days, we nearly failed to get it there in time for the Sultans wifes birthday. Local chap was in a fair sweat at the time but just managed in time.
Then there's the 4 rocket firing Land Rovers (legal!) into THR for the Shah just 2 days before he left. Somewhat interesting!
Those were the days!

------------------
I'm not old, I was just born too early

[CargoOne]

- several dozens of reindeers to ZRH
- pair of white bears to ARN
- shark to AMS
- pair of dolphins and sea-calfs (circus) to Madagascar
- many times several tons of gold, mainly to ZRH
- several times rockets ex CHR (gov-to-gov)
- full charter to carry one small box (38 kgs) from LUX to NBO
- sereral times sveral hundred of foxes ex CPH (what a smell!)
- F1 and WRC cars

[CargoRat2]

Hi CargoOne;
I'm doing the F1 to & from Montreal end of the month. These flights are good fun.


------------------
rgds Rat

[CargoOne]

CR2,
you going to move all F1 fleet or just one team?

[CargoRat2]

2 Rotations to ymx, 3 back. Think AZ & LH are also doing some. Need 8 747s to move the lot for one race.

------------------
rgds Rat

[DDDOF]

In the back of a Metro with pax in front, on separate trips a bear cub and a young moose both in boxes of course as well as moose sperm packed in dry ice(ah aviation in Canada).
In a shorts a/c full of desiel and nitrogen fertilizer( we called it the Oklahoma Special)
Anyone have stowaways on Cargo aircraft hidden in Cans/Igloos/Containers or whatever you called them where you fly??

[mutt]

Not sure if this is an urban legend or not, but i was told it yesterday.

2 racing camels on the way to DXB in a RSAF C130, one of them went crazy and couldn’t be calmed. Capt ordered the tailgate opened and the offending animal removed. He probably saved the aircraft but ended up in a Saudi jail.

Or how about sending a L1011 to Mongolia to pick up Falcons! Or a MD11 to Italy to pick up Marble!

Mutt.

[Vmike]

Truth is, I don't know exactly what we are flying around. I know what the cargo sheet says, but who knows? All the stuff turns up in igloos, ready to go. For all I know I could be flying 15 tonnes of cocaine around and never know it. Still, never mind, eh? It still beats working for a living!

[Rogaine addict]

Most of the time, I have absolutely no idea. But on a charter a few years ago we hauled a 727 full of eggplants from SDQ to JFK. Later I found out that most of the world's eggplants are grown just down the road in N.J..

[Intruder]

126 horses, ANC-OKA with one pack inop. Main deck was WOX0F in horse sweat.

Horses were to be turned into dinner after the appropriate quarantine...

[ULDboy]

About 10 years ago we carried fish out of Africa, the thing was they were also loaded in the lower holds.
We got to Frankfurt and they unloaded the main deck and forward hold yet omitted the rear.
It was summer and very hot, the next day we came out to the aircraft and was met by the worst possible smell......... If only we had had a loadmaster

[Top Loadie]

A classic charter load for good ol' TNT.
STN-LGG Empty Igloos
Full crew rest
LGG-STN Empty Igloos!!
Not even a documents pouch...

One charter request that used to crop up regularly when I was flying a desk a while back was day old chicks. Anyone carried these? I bet the micro feathers were a ba***rd....

[RampTramp]

Top Loadie,

Everybody keeps reminding me of my younger days!! We regularly took +/- 27 tons of day old chicks to Africa on the CL44. Couldn't hear the engines for the noise of the chicks & HOT!! Had to wear ear defenders to go back & make the coffee. Happy days!

------------------
I'm not old, I was just born too early

[freightdoggy dog]

Zimmer frames for HM Air Force from UK to Kenya!
Mainframe computers for Gaddafi Duck from Southend to Tripoli.
Moouse Heads from Stansted to Oslo,
but hey who cares it pays the mortgage and keeps the bank manager happy.

[CargoRat2]

Back from the F1...good fun again. That AZ bird was an Atlas -400F in Alitalia paint scheme (N498MC).
We had 18500 liters of F1 fuel on board the 1st flight.

------------------
rgds Rat

[yan]

anyone flew the "special gargo" out in rwanda in mid-90's?

[Smoketrails]

As groundhandler at MST, I have loaded horses onto B707's and DC-8's, squeezed computers into AN12's, stuffed millions and millions dollars worth of fags down IL76's and sent tons of meat to the Kingdom of Jordan. Unloading an AN124 stuffed up to the ceiling(cranerail) with Adidas sportsshoes was a particular long, hard and dangerous job!

But.....it was all fun!!!

[Top Loadie]

2 AN124's, each with 120t of generators during the French floods.
Only when they got back to base did they realise that they still had the ignition keys for all the units in a brown evelope in the crew compartment!!

[wheelchock]

'special cargo' into Kigali in the mid 90's on the good old 707 :) :) :) :) :)

[pilotazo]

Dodge VIPER and a Masseratti LM2 from MIA to Medellin.(guess who was the owner??)

108 LLamas from La Paz(14000msl)to MIA, one born in flight.

Agricultor machinery from Baltimor to the jungle in Venezuela(no jepp App) out of an airforce base without paperwork. Come back emptly and change callsing in flight.

More agriculyor staff from MIA to ecuador during war with peru.

Rocket engines(full load) from LHR to FRA.

8 hours trip for one horse and return emptly.

God old 707

[Hunter58]

Cheese flavor...

And I remember the day a drum of that stuff was kicked open by a totally inadequate warehouse driver. They guy planted his forklift into the drum, and instead of allerting anyone he tried to cover up. Yeah, with that penetrating stink it was certainly not his best idea. The warehouse stank for another month. Yuck!

Oh, and there were these pallets knee high to AMD (Ahmadabad, India). With no MD highloader available and carefull preplanning we managed the DC10s trim pretty well. It seems to have been Silver.

And I remember the day we found an unsuspicious box leaking some strange liquid. The fire department came out and found it was some corrosive stuff. As it was undeclared the forwarder got shut down by the local authority where the flight came from and went out of business. Just did not want to pay these DGR extras...! The plane went into service on schedule...

------------------
There's nothing like a three-holer...

[spider from mars]

My strangest would be the 2000 lbs of nuclear fuel rods from Spokane to South Carolina.The container weighed an additional 6000 pounds, then throw in 500 pounds for the DG paperwork and permits, and finally 600 pounds for the three armed couriers.I still don't use a night light.

------------------
holdontsfmdirefs

[Diesel8]

15.000 lbs of high explosives, they parked us really far from the terminal after they finally relented to letting us land. US Gov shipment.

3 fifty gallons drums with paint into a Learjet 24, no forklift, loaded them of the back of a pickup truck. They kept making weird noises in flight due expansion.

A load a rear axles from somewhere south in the US to Dallas. Pretty ordinary, except the airport we loaded at had no ramp large enough for a DC-8, so we parked on the taxiway. Nor did they have an airstart, so we kept an engine running. That was all good, but we were met by a onearmed forklift driver and his kid, all the axles had to be placed on "cookies sheets", (greasy things!) and then loaded in the aircraft. That coupled with the fact it was hot as Hades, loud and with fumes coming from the running engine. This was not a great experience.

But I would not trade any of it.

[one cup]

Cr2 I flew the F1 cars to all the major gp's back in the 70's on cl44's we double stacked them on scffold framework I guess I could claim some sort of record for the highest scaffolding erected.

[mcdhu]

I remember, in the mid 70s, flying 3 large crates each of which contained a bustard- a 'large tall ostrich-like swift running bird of the family Otididae'. Some organization was trying to restock Salisbury Plain with these things which had died out there many years before. We picked them up in Lisbon and fed them hard boiled eggs on the way which they seemed to like. The loadie did, however, receive lacerations to his fingers while feeding these large creatures!! I don't think it worked!!
mcdhu

[TowerDog]

Flew nuclear stuff to India some years ago.
We loaded it all the way aft to minimize exposure to radiation.

Also a DC-8 load of paper money:
2 Billion riyals from Jeddah to Riyad.
Included was 3 cans of holy water to to bless the safe arrival of the dough and armed guards to keep the crew honest.

Hauled the race cars and the chickens, the flowers and the big animals etc.
Miss flying freight. If my present employer had freighters, I would bid 'em in a heart beat.

------------------
Men, this is no drill...

[Droopy]

Arrived at an offshore platform in Nigeria once to find a passenger accompanied by the frozen 190-pound grouper he'd caught the day before. The baggage bay in the Bell-212 isn't that big so it had to be strapped in to the seat beside him.

To my great disappointment he didn't put his arm round it.

[ULDboy]

Just got back now from Zaire, we took several crates of cash down to the government.

All that nice new money mmmmmmmmm

I am off now to go and buy a Ferrari F1

Off course I am honest!;-)

[CargoRat2]

Just got back from MUC with the return F1 ex YMX. 5Y N409MC were also there on the same run (AZ flt nbr). Got home almost an hour ahead of schedule - good handling at all stations.

------------------
rgds Rat

[The Claw]

1993, Lux charter with Kfir aircraft for South Africa. Left with miltary vehicles. Would be interested to learn more from the crew.

[GlueBall]

80,000 Lbs Coca Cola bottle caps IAD-YQX-BUD

[Checkboard]

On passenger flights:

143 kg of diamonds,
A ton or so of gold (different flights)

both with security for on and off load, but none in flight - now where am I going to divert to??? :)

[CL604]

Several BN2A loads of Reindeer antlers from Atkinson Pt-Tuktoyaktuk. Antlers are sent to the Orient to be finely ground to maka you 45 time horny.

[This message has been edited by CL604 (edited 24 June 2001).]

[wheelchock]

The most abnormal thing I ever carried around is a L/M called Kevin D.Really insane.Likes viagra, and the rest what comes with it.They should have locked him up years ago.

[Dark Skies]

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh !!! I was waiting for the reply!!!

Remember breakfast in Madrid , along with that Ranto Bitch and the Mad Dutchman?? Happy days!!!!

[CargoRat2]

Had some penguins on board the other day.

------------------
rgds Rat

[wheelchock]

A mad Dutchman?Who that?

[Continuous Ignition]

Back in my freight days, we hauled the following in a B727-200..

PGUM-WAMM: 2 or 3 cookie sheets of rice. (who woulda thought that Indonesia would import rice!)

PTPN-PGUM: A Cessna 172 (with the wings and stabs removed of course)

PGUM-PTRO: 2 pickup trucks and a $40K USD Ford Windstar van. (talk about a pain to load!!)

We normally just flew tuna from the islands to Guam and Saipan (PGSN) But on occasion, back-haul would appear to make the operation even more proftable...

We were most happy when the guys on the outter islands would send us back a big yellow-fin tuna for a beach party..

Mmmmm, grilled tuna, makes my mouth water just thinkin about it!

------------------
Don't like it? Don't look at it!