747 and Canberra airport
 

OK so whats the problem? Why do 747's clean up the landing lights taking off from Canberra airport?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...1/s1784203.htm

AF1 has been in and out more than once, so I don't know that it's every 747 departure.

Maybe a heavy departure and the infrastructure is simply not set up to cope with the associated jet blast?

The plane in question was an Arab Emirates registered 747SP which had delivered the Elvis firefighting helicopters.

As part of the ongoing runway works at CB, the runway lights at the northern end of R17/35 were temporary installations that apparently weren't tethered as well as they were supposed to be.

R12/30 was still available for smallish aircraft, and I believe some planes took the option of landing on 35, or 17 with a displaced threshold until enough lights were back in operation for the whole of 17 to be available again.

Pretty much on the ball Trenshadow, except the SP was carrying a middle-eastern prince and the AN-124 brought the helicopters!

The whole thing seems to be a big Hoo Hah about not very much really... 90 minutes later it was business as usual

These things happen. It was only because (as mentioned earlier) the lights were temps because of the runway works that they suffered damage. As CIAstooge said, things like this happen at airports and the machine worked as it should and the place was cleaned up efficiently.
Funny to see though. A lot of dust. The people in Brand Depot would have had a good view!