strangest freight
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 37
Likes: 0
From: Spain
Wood you believe........
Palm trees from California, for a golf course under construction.
The trees were transhipped in FCO, destination..........DXB.
Evidently the local palms were the "wrong type." 
IIRC there were three separate flights of 40t. each.
The trees were transhipped in FCO, destination..........DXB. Evidently the local palms were the "wrong type." IIRC there were three separate flights of 40t. each.
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Texas
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.
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 1,550
Likes: 0
From: Alaska, PNG, etc.
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.
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: Cheshire
Unusual cargo
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.
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 12
Likes: 1
From: Queensland
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!
Radioactive Goods
Live Horse Semen
HUM
All you'd need is some solid turbulence, a frayed tiedown or two, and voila - mutant zombie centaurs!
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,777
Likes: 9
From: Blighty
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!
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!
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 148
Likes: 17
From: UK
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'
- well we put a plastic sheet on the floor of the cargo pod and off we went
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'
- well we put a plastic sheet on the floor of the cargo pod and off we went
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: Australia
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...
Still it paid my salary...
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 28
Likes: 7
From: NZ
dynamite !
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 !
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
From: London
hi
Yes we all know what MOONSHINE Is the answer is who had it
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 658
Likes: 0
From: Green and pleasant land
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!
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!
Joined: Aug 2015
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 451
Likes: 300
From: The South
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
Last edited by Timmy Tomkins; 8th October 2020 at 12:30.