Mistery 4-prop at Alicante

[Cameronian]

My wife is adamant that while waiting to taxi at Alicante at about 2120hrs on Sunday the first of February she watched the boarding and engine start of a four-engined propliner which was immediately adjacent to her own Vueling A320 flight. She says it was basically white and thinks it had high-ish wings and that each prop had more than four blades. A man could probably walk beneath the tip of the bottom blade. She watched around thirty passengers (there may have been more that she didn't see, apparently) board on the port side then both starboard engines were started, followed by the port engines. I showed her an Electra (even though I think it's a very very long time since any carried passengers and a long time since Air Atlantique even carried freight in Europe) and then an A400M. Her comments were that it had more than 4 blades per prop. and she didn't remember the squared end of the paddle blades and was confident that there were more than four each but didn't think they were curved (à la Grizzly). Nor did she think that it was as wide-bodied as the A400M.

Are there white A400Ms which carry passengers? When I've seen them at Sevilla, the most striking things are the six curly propellor blades and the tail - and that they're all grey!

What, please, was it, or do I have to get her checked over by a specialist?

[PAXboy]

Gently remind her about using her mobile phone to take a quick pic of it before shutting off her phone for departure? ;)

[Cameronian]

Good idea!

[Booglebox]

Lockheed L-100?
Dash 7?

[DaveReidUK]

An-12?

http://cdn1.airplane-pictures.net/images/uploaded-images/2014/8/20/446783as.jpg

Though the passengers wouldn't get much of a view. :O

[tubby linton]

An-12 or a An-70 if multibladed.

[vespasia]

C130J? Fits the description, but not sure who has white ones...

[Cameronian]

Thank you all. I think that the best bet is the Dash 7 (never mind the apparently missing blades!) and I should have thought of that. I think that it's a pretty rare beast these days carrying passengers in Europe. She said the aircraft was essentially white so perhaps it was a non-commercial example.

[Capetonian]

I tend to distrust anything that the female of the species say about aircraft or car type recognition.

On the other hand, some have an uncanny ability to recognise, from a distance at whch males would barely even see, let alone recognise, any minor celebrity. They can also describe colours way beyond the range of primary colours that we males see. I don't even know what 'lilac' or 'peach' colour is, although admittedly being partly colour blind doesn't help.

A (female) friend of mine recently flew from CPT to LHR on an aircraft that, in her words: "only had two propellers, but I thought all the big ones had four."

[DaveReidUK]

She said the aircraft was essentially white so perhaps it was a non-commercial example.Possibly this one:

http://ottspotters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/C-GZKM-De-Havilland-Dash-7.jpg

[Stanwell]

A ladyfriend some time back...

"What kind of plane was it, dear?"
"Well, It was a pretty white colour, it was very clean and shiny - but it didn't seem to have any engines."

"What kind of car was it, dear?"
"Ooh, It was a nice shade of grey - with perhaps a touch of blue in it and it had very shiny wheels!"

No wonder I drink.

[vctenderness]

Not wanting to upset the fairer sex but....

I caught a little of a programme the other day in which a lady had been scammed and lost her car.

The presenter had arranged with a dealer to give her a car free of charge.

She was led into the showroom and told she could choose anyone of the four cars in front of her.

She immediately said "the black one". :eek:

Probably not the most scientific way to choose a vehicle.

[dixi188]

Are there any C130Js in UN livery?
That would be the 6 blades and walk under them.

[skerry]

The only props I've seen on the main apron at ALC are ATRs; usually in Air Europa colours and operated by Swiftair I believe. It was night, and your wife was looking out of the window of a nice comfy Airbus, is she sure about the number of engines? Might I be so bold as to suggest you show her a picture of an ATR? :)

[Mr_Grubby]

So we are standing in the garden waiting to see the ISS to go over the top.
Lady asks, 'will we be able to hear it'
No dear.

[arai]

At 1924Z on Sun 1st Feb 2015, EC-KUL an ATR72 departed LEAL as AEA4050 to Madrid. That was the only prop aircraft that filed a flight plan from ALC between 1900 and 2359 that day.

(Although it doesnt and never did have 4 props!!!)

Hope that helps.

Arai

[El Bunto]

So we are standing in the garden waiting to see the ISS to go over the top.
Lady asks, 'will we be able to hear it'

Theoretically you could hear it if you had a sensitive enough ear!

The ISS is stuck in a rather crap orbital altitude band due to the limitations of the dearly-departed Shuttle. Anything between 250 km and 1000 km is particulary draggy for a satellite.

At 400 km altitude, the air density is about a billionth of that at sea-level but its passage and the machinery noise still makes molecules vibrate.

If we knew the temperature of the atmosphere at that level ( I think it is quite warm ) we could calculate whether it is creating a sonic boom, too. Exceedingly weak but still..

[Big Eric]

EC-KUL seems to be the culprit as it is in an all-white colour scheme :- Photos: ATR ATR-72-500 (ATR-72-212A) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Europa-(Swiftair)/ATR-ATR-72-500-(ATR-72-212A)/2581269/L/&sid=40c1fce53cbd4c0fafe04907ba5d5e49)


Women eh !!

[Cameronian]

Well, I'd better get the embarrassing bit over first... She's sorry but now remembers that it was on the outgoing flight rather than the return. This means that she saw it at PMI while boarding her Swiftair (?) ATR72 for the 1040 hrs. Air Europa flight to Alicante on the 29th. of January.

She seemed fairly convinced by the various suggestions of a Dash 7 but remains to be fully so because of its lack of blades!

[lotus1]

I wonder if the mystery aircraft could have been the ministry casa 212 which is always flying around alicante ? I have seen quite a few hercs in the past the French one which was stranded for a couple of months also Dutch hercs also the an12 doing the tuna runs direct to Japan but as already pointed out I would have said this was the swift air atr

[SpringHeeledJack]

also the an12 doing the tuna runs direct to Japan

Que ? Would it really be viable to fly all that way in a lumbering AN12 instead of chucking it onto a freighter at the nearest large hub airport ?


SHJ

[lotus1]

They have since replaced this now with a an124 must want the tuna more quickly they operate this around once a year this is not like the daily 747 that flys down to lasvegas from anchorage with lobsters and all types of sea food they must want this quick

[DaveReidUK]

I wonder if the mystery aircraft could have been the ministry casa 212 which is always flying around alicante ?Only if the OP's wife got the part about those 30 passengers wrong as well ...