View Full Version : Russian air force delivers aid to the US. But where's the loadmaster?
Nick H.
1st Apr 2020, 15:13
Is this how you're meant to load an Antonov-124?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1240x663/5e8405d52030270f2c055795_f8b680ff0020b56764611c02d2b8721e159 c177c.png
Apparently it's medical aid sent by Putin at Trump's request. That's the story put out by the Russian MOD, and Trump seems to agree. But why would you fill the hold with loose boxes? Where are the cargo nets?
https://ria.ru/20200401/1569423811.html
charliegolf
1st Apr 2020, 15:16
PR shot before securing the load?
CG
Nick H.
1st Apr 2020, 15:20
I suppose so. It doesn't look as if they used pallets to load it...maybe they just had a long line of people doing pass the parcel.
Doctor Cruces
1st Apr 2020, 15:52
Heavylift used to hand load an AN124 full of Epson Printers in Indonesia and offload the same way.
TheWestCoast
1st Apr 2020, 15:53
In Russia, unsecured boxes load you, etc....
golfbananajam
1st Apr 2020, 16:01
Looks like cargo nets over the top towards the back of the photo and the way some of the boxes are shrink wrapped it does look like some pallets or uni-tainers are used too.
I-AINC
1st Apr 2020, 16:16
Come on guys, GET A LIFE!
We are in a global emergency/pandemic and you start to criticize how the cargo is loaded... The most important part is to help people delivering the load!
Now you can start talking about how dangerous this can be with turbulence and so on.... come on! Boxes with card face masks...
Stuart Sutcliffe
1st Apr 2020, 16:33
Come on guys, GET A LIFE!
We are in a global emergency/pandemic and you start to criticize how the cargo is loaded... The most important part is to help people delivering the load!
Now you can start talking about how dangerous this can be with turbulence and so on.... come on! Boxes with card face masks...
Really? There is a lot of it, it will be heavy, and if it did shift in severe turbulence it could lead to loss of control, followed shortly thereafter by loss of the aircraft ... and the crew ... and the supplies. Which would render this portion of the "global emergency/pandemic" effort entirely worthless, wouldn't it?
So come down off your podium and calm down.
Maybe nets and belts came after the picture was shot?
Anyway, the plane has already reached Goose Bay, i.e. the pond was crossed OK.
GKOC41
1st Apr 2020, 16:57
Stuart please will did entirely NOT BOVVERED
racedo
1st Apr 2020, 17:09
Is this how you're meant to load an Antonov-124?
Apparently it's medical aid sent by Putin at Trump's request. That's the story put out by the Russian MOD, and Trump seems to agree.
Nope it was an offer to assist made from the President of Russia to the President of the US.
US Embassies were already trying to source items across Europe from other nations (excluding Russia). An offer of assistance was made and accepted.
No different from the help US Presidents have offered to many nations who have needed help in various disasters, Russians saw they could help and offered it.
Just like in Italy where Russian and China have put people on the ground with tons of assisatnce but Atlantic Council idiots have tried to plant Fake News stories about the equipment and people
not being fit for purpose. The fake news got quickly shot down by Italian Ambassador to Russia, President of region of Lombardy and medical teams using it.
Wycombe
1st Apr 2020, 17:14
I once offloaded an IL76 at a large UK airbase that had vehicles and other heavy items bulk-loaded to the point that the only restraint was the proximity of the items to each other and to the side-walls and ceiling of the aircraft. We didn't realise there were 4x4's in the load until we found them buried under other freight!
So this doesn't surprise me at all.
The fact that we are in a global emergency is no excuse not to load the aircraft and restrain the load correctly.
Or maybe, to the guy telling us to "get a life" you'd take the risk of that 124 departing controlled flight due to a load shift and coming down on a city centre?
Appreciate the load is very different, but cases like this sadly always bring to my mind the the awful Bagram 747 accident that is too dreadful to watch.
andrasz
1st Apr 2020, 17:25
Nobody except golfbananajam use the Mk 1 eyeball here ? The load in the background is clearly secured by nets, presumably the foregoround is stil being loaded.
Dealt with many AN124 crews over the years and every single one of them have been thoroughly professional. These boys do this day in day out, doubt they'd take such glaringly obvious risks.
Picture probably taken before the nets were secured
aloominumtoob
1st Apr 2020, 17:41
First word of the text under the video is "Aeroflot". Logo on the tail tends to point to a civil operator. Loads like that were normally forked on with the boxes on what we used to call "NATO pallets." much quicker than hand-balling, Nicky. though I do remember a few times hand loading 120 tonnes of cigarettes (in boxes!) ex-Richmond to Tblisi on 124s of ADB. Nets and straps and away you go. With a Loadmaster. Swing the lantern. I forget where in Europe to Montreal, a load of fibre-optic cables. With spare weight and space, the charterer naughtily:=, for various reasons, also loaded large cardboard cartons of freeze dried strawberries for Kellogs which were in hermetically sealed bags.:uhoh: Thing to remember, the 124 flew with the cargo compartment unpressurised. On climb-out we heard "pop....pop.....pop....pop" etc. At our first stop, Gander, we were greeted with a wonderful scent of strawberries. Most of the sealed bags had ruptured, strawberries everywhere! We had strawberries for days.:ooh:
Take care of selfs and each other.
Rgds.,
alt
First word of the text under the video is "Aeroflot". Logo on the tail tends to point to a civil operator.
The An-124 Condor, registration RA-82038, is from the 224th Flight Unit under authority of the Russian Air Force.
The 224th Flying Unit was established in 1971 and reorganized under its present form in 2009, as a state owned autonomous company under authority of the Russian Air Force, operating a large fleet of Ilyushin Il-76s and Antonov An-124s on charter cargo missions worldwide.
https://flyingcarpet75.jimdofree.com/non-airline/russian-air-force-224th-flying-unit/
Image link of RA-82038.
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9351697
mickjoebill
1st Apr 2020, 18:51
By weight, possibly one of the world’s most valuable cargos. N95 masks @ $12 per unit... for the equivalent of moulded coffee cup!
Mjb
Wycombe
1st Apr 2020, 20:08
Nobody except golfbananajam use the Mk 1 eyeball here ?
Ok, looked again (viewed as a small pic on phone earlier) and can now see that there are some nets.
Stand by my comments that an urgent/emergency situation is not an excuse to cut corners though.
b1lanc
1st Apr 2020, 21:10
Nope it was an offer to assist made from the President of Russia to the President of the US.
US Embassies were already trying to source items across Europe from other nations (excluding Russia). An offer of assistance was made and accepted.
No different from the help US Presidents have offered to many nations who have needed help in various disasters, Russians saw they could help and offered it.
Meanwhile,
RU203/ABW203 VP-BBY SVO to ORD is on approach and RU301/ABW301 VQ-BRJ SVO to ORD is over Greenland. One might imagine additional supplies.
firewall
1st Apr 2020, 21:10
Sometimes we need to live with whats needed. A lot of equipment needs to be transported right now and strict adherance to procedures is secondary . I flew many freight ops over the years , mostly well restrained with good loadmasters but horse flights with up to 40 animals were unrestrained apart from neck halters so a few bulky lightweight boxes wouldn't concern me.
racedo
1st Apr 2020, 22:10
Meanwhile,
RU203/ABW203 VP-BBY SVO to ORD is on approach and RU301/ABW301 VQ-BRJ SVO to ORD is over Greenland. One might imagine additional supplies.
https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/04/01/une-commande-francaise-de-masques-detournee-vers-les-etats-unis-sur-un-tarmac-chinois_1783805
Some Dems screaming we cannot accept free Russian help but lets just pay over the odds to steal orders from Allies that have already paid for it and is being produced by the nation we deem is the biggest threat to us i.e. China.
blorgwinder
1st Apr 2020, 23:12
Ok, looked again (viewed as a small pic on phone earlier) and can now see that there are some nets.
Stand by my comments that an urgent/emergency situation is not an excuse to cut corners though.
You/we have no idea if corners were cut or not because there is no picture of the load once the door was closed.
The argument can be made that it was done properly look at the netting and accept is is likely that the netting was used for the entire load. Or the glass was half full and the netting was not secured and the flight operated with the load unrestrained.
reefrat
2nd Apr 2020, 05:25
I was evacuated from Sanaa during the civil war. The US Marines arrived in Hercs which sat on the tarmac with turbines spinning while they loaded sundry nationalities,, sadly I was the wrong nationality,(Australian), and was refused boarding.
Happily next day the UN organised a giant Russian aircraft that had been shifting famine relief grain in the horn of Africa which had been converted for pax with simple bush carpenter pine benches, about 8 of them which ran the full length of the aircraft fore and aft and lacked any seat belts.
Given the circumstances there was no objection by the 400 odd SLF or the crew and we b*ggered off to Amman.
Wycombe
2nd Apr 2020, 07:18
You/we have no idea if corners were cut or not because there is no picture of the load once the door was closed.
To be clear, I'm not saying that corners were (or weren't) cut in this case, as you say we don't know.
Just making the general point, and also accepting that if you are in imminent danger (as per reefrat's example) you might make a risk-based judgement.
bobward
2nd Apr 2020, 07:31
Hmm, message sent out on 1st of April, worded so it's bound to polarise opinions, and several nibbles there to follow.........
Just a thought.
Smoketrails
2nd Apr 2020, 08:42
Worked for Maastricht Airport Handling in the early 90's. Loaded and unloaded many IL76's and A124's those days and there were little to none restraints used. We even set a small car on the loading platform of an IL76 once as the a/c was packed with cigarettes!
The An-124 being unloaded at JFK.
fRW1HHd-iPE
LoeyDaFrog
2nd Apr 2020, 22:01
Is this how you're meant to load an Antonov-124?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1240x663/5e8405d52030270f2c055795_f8b680ff0020b56764611c02d2b8721e159 c177c.png
Apparently it's medical aid sent by Putin at Trump's request. That's the story put out by the Russian MOD, and Trump seems to agree. But why would you fill the hold with loose boxes? Where are the cargo nets?
https://ria.ru/20200401/1569423811.html
Saw quite a few 124s at Fujaira and most were loaded to a 'similar' standard!
blind pew
3rd Apr 2020, 08:39
Unsecured cargo
Did a accelerated free fall course out of Gap in the French alps. Two days of Mistral delayed my jump until late Sunday afternoon.
Moi and my two instructors joined the other 8 or 10 guys in the Pilatus Porter.
I was making bricks with the others doing their best to allay my fears until we hit the wind shear associated with the mistral where upon we all were thrown into a heap in the tail.
Cue everyone else now white as sheets frantically crawling up the floor to get the aircraft attitude back to normal.
Shared a flat with a guy who flew veggies out of Jersey in a DC3..one day the loader watered the lettuces and loaded the toilet with them which put the CofG way outside of limits. Took both pilots to stop the aircraft crashing.