strangest freight
Join Date: Nov 2008
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A kilogram of pure cocaine "accompanied by police for controlled delivery" from TXL to FCO.
Someone had ordered it somewhere in Paraguay, from where it was flown into LEJ by DHL. It was found during a routine spot check and handed over to the federal police. As its market value was estimated EUR 250.000,-, the German Federal Police decided to send it down to Rome on a normal passenger flight accompanied by a police officer, who was ordered to hand it over to the Italian authorities... Yeah, bye bye
The icing was the quetsions to us whether or not we preferred to keep it in the flight deck during flight...
Someone had ordered it somewhere in Paraguay, from where it was flown into LEJ by DHL. It was found during a routine spot check and handed over to the federal police. As its market value was estimated EUR 250.000,-, the German Federal Police decided to send it down to Rome on a normal passenger flight accompanied by a police officer, who was ordered to hand it over to the Italian authorities... Yeah, bye bye
The icing was the quetsions to us whether or not we preferred to keep it in the flight deck during flight...
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Condoms
Around 25 million of them. Miami to Brasilia on behalf of the Brazilian government for free distribution during Carnival at Rio, Salvador & Sao Paulo. This was one of two shipments which originated at Hong Kong. B.744-F.
Join Date: Sep 2009
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Bull Semen / Bullets
When I started shifting freight around the world the most common shipment being sent was Bull Semen (in refrigerated liquid nitrogen). Had one of the flasks crack on me when it was collected. You would not believe the mess it made on the van.
An absolute shed load (and I am talking millions upon millions) of bullets. I have sent them around the world (and back again).
Just two of the strangest things I have sent around the world.
An absolute shed load (and I am talking millions upon millions) of bullets. I have sent them around the world (and back again).
Just two of the strangest things I have sent around the world.
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: LUTON, UK
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In 20 years working on the ground at Luton two cases spring to mind.
A box of 6 Penguins (not chocolate biscuits) on a regular BAC1-11 passenger flight to Shannon and a chartered DC3 to transport a Dolphin.
A box of 6 Penguins (not chocolate biscuits) on a regular BAC1-11 passenger flight to Shannon and a chartered DC3 to transport a Dolphin.
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That was my bull seman - always wondered what happened!
I was a very naive and unwise investor in a bull semen partnership.
We owned some very fancy bulls and were shipping their semen to Packistan, Afganistan, ...stan, to help them improve their cattle herds.
The 20 limited partners finally realized that we were not going to make any money when the general partner flew home from one of those countries, he was to get payment for the seman that was not broken enroute, and was arrested at JFK for bringing back a lot of very expensive powder instead of a lot of thousand dollar bills. All we had to do was convince the DEA we were ignorant - it didn't take them long to realize we were also stupid!
I lost a very significant sum on that stupid idea - worse my 28 year old wife lost all confidence in my ability to manage our money. Twentysix years later I am still trying to convince her I can manage the money and it is safe for her to retire. ( I sold my business 10 years ago)
The REALLY dumb thing was that my father, a veternarian, was one of the world's experts in the area of third world cattle herd improvement and was a consultant for WHO. He begged me not to make that investment. But how can a 60 year old professional tell his 37 year old son anything?
Live and Learn?
We owned some very fancy bulls and were shipping their semen to Packistan, Afganistan, ...stan, to help them improve their cattle herds.
The 20 limited partners finally realized that we were not going to make any money when the general partner flew home from one of those countries, he was to get payment for the seman that was not broken enroute, and was arrested at JFK for bringing back a lot of very expensive powder instead of a lot of thousand dollar bills. All we had to do was convince the DEA we were ignorant - it didn't take them long to realize we were also stupid!
I lost a very significant sum on that stupid idea - worse my 28 year old wife lost all confidence in my ability to manage our money. Twentysix years later I am still trying to convince her I can manage the money and it is safe for her to retire. ( I sold my business 10 years ago)
The REALLY dumb thing was that my father, a veternarian, was one of the world's experts in the area of third world cattle herd improvement and was a consultant for WHO. He begged me not to make that investment. But how can a 60 year old professional tell his 37 year old son anything?
Live and Learn?
TacomaSailor,
With difficulty - and, in any case, we all have to do our own thing.
I listened to my parents - up to a point.
Our children listened to us - up to a point.
Anyway, beautiful sailing area; similar to the Clyde estuary but on a rather grander scale
But how can a 60 year old professional tell his 37 year old son anything?
I listened to my parents - up to a point.
Our children listened to us - up to a point.
Anyway, beautiful sailing area; similar to the Clyde estuary but on a rather grander scale
Oh, getting on thread, couple of young female gorillas, one of whom took a fancy to the FO and grabbed his hand - friendly like but FO got a bit of a shock (I would too).
Huge number of shaheens (Arabic for peregrin falcons?) coming aboard passenger GF L1011 in Karachi and crapping all over the place. Owners were mega rich/influential so that was OK.
Huge number of shaheens (Arabic for peregrin falcons?) coming aboard passenger GF L1011 in Karachi and crapping all over the place. Owners were mega rich/influential so that was OK.
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Ostend
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Simon Mann and Mark T. organising a bit of strange freight
Just saw this on Dutch TV, a lot is in English:
Player omroep.nl
or click: http://cgi.omroep.nl/legacy/player?/...b.20100329.asf
Enjoy...
Pilot Crause Steyl, and Simon Mann on Tatcher, can be seen arround 20 mins from start of documentary
Player omroep.nl
or click: http://cgi.omroep.nl/legacy/player?/...b.20100329.asf
Enjoy...
Pilot Crause Steyl, and Simon Mann on Tatcher, can be seen arround 20 mins from start of documentary
Last edited by hydroplane; 3rd Apr 2010 at 12:01.
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Not in the same leagues the rest of the posts but a gearbox for a broken down campervan in a PA28-181. Needed a front seat pax to keep C of G inside the envelope. Also did a differential for a different campervan as on another flight.
Last edited by Biggles78; 15th Apr 2010 at 15:41. Reason: Fix typo
Join Date: Sep 2008
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I hauled a plane full of Muslims for Eid al-Adha, some holiday. and one plane was full of the luggage, most of it was that water they get, don't know much about it but it was strange.
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Lobsters for dinner anyone?
Picked a family on a tour around Africa in a chartered G5 I think. Anyway, all the pax boarded the C208 whilst I got to fly their luggage in BE58. They had just arrived in Durban from Cape Town and we were taking them to their private game lodge North of Durban. Their jet could not land there. Happily loaded all the contents and set sail in a manner of speaking. Arriving at said lodge we commenced unpacking the goods. One of the cool boxes seemed to swish about a bit when we unloaded it, so a rather fetching young game ranger'ess (female version, you get the picture) lifted the lid somewhat non-chalantly and nearly got here fingers clipped off by the biggest live lobsters I have ever seen, flown all the way up from Cape Town and freshly caught that same morning. Anyway, reckon her scream frightened them more than they frightened her and the lid was quickly replaced. Ahh said the chef, dinner has arrived. Glad those cretins never got out in the cruise!!
Yikes!!
Yikes!!
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Ghoulish Cargo at Little Rock, Ark.
Southwest Airlines (SWA) finds a shipment of human skulls in their freight. Link to the story Airline seizes dozens of human heads - Life- msnbc.com. This may shake a few cargo rats up a bit . . . .
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Baby sharks from FAPE to FAJS for export. On another occasion a goat in a crate and a crocodile in the same hold right next to each other. Must have been great entertainment in that hold.......in the dark!
Strangest of all though was Jacob Zuma.........before he used to fly in South Africa 1.
111
Strangest of all though was Jacob Zuma.........before he used to fly in South Africa 1.
111
Last edited by Unlucky Nelson; 24th Jul 2010 at 13:43.
Full shipload of Barbie dolls from KUL to the US (can't remember where exactly) in 1995 on a Fedex (ex FT) B74SF.
Charter was from the Mattel (they have a factory near KUL) for the Christmas season.
On the day of the flight (departure around 2200local), the freight company AEI (now absorbed into DHL-Danzas-Deutschpost etc) had only 5 guys doing the palletising AND sending the pallets into the customs warehouse..it was very close but that wasn't the only problem!
They ended up with an extra lower-deck pallet! After loading the bulk compt (two trolleys) we broke down the pallet and loaded it into the bulk... we had some left over, what now?
Well the B74SF doesn't have a nose door like its purpose built freighter sisters, instead it has a kind of storage area, maintenance usually keeps stuff like cases of engine/hydraulic oil and even spare tyres. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Since none of us in KUL were qualified for B74F loadsheet (it was on the way out even then...
), there was a load-master on board...we approached him and asked if we could load the overflow in the 'forward bulk' ..he asked "how many boxes do you have?" ... "a couple" was my reply!
To speed things up we pulled back the left side barrier on the airstairs and angled the belt loader so it reached the doorway platform.. We could do this as the cartons were not heavy... We were lucky there was a loadmaster on board, even if we had been qualified I think it would have been difficult to convince the crew!
We couldn't put it the overflow on a later scheduled flight as there was no paperwork (AWB-airwaybill) and the customs had already been 'cleared'.
Didn't delay the flight much too!
..................
Another charter I remember was when I was working in SIN with CIAS, a ground handling agent..There were a lot of interesting charters and one memorable one was by a forwarder called 'Airmark' if I remember correctly. This was a B747 of the IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) which was specially built as an aerial refueller but still had cargo capability. There was a 'boom operator' in the rear and positions T and S were sacrificed for this. The operated had a contoured couch and lay face down and operated the 'flying boom', remember theIran Air Force had F14 Tomcats! There was a guardrail around this area to protect the operator (from falling freight?!). Some of the aircraft had nose-loading but some had a refuelling receiver in the nose just below the cockpit window.. there was no nose-door and on the inside you could see the hose running down the side of the airplane.
Anyway ...to get back to the charter... The IRIAF brought along their own pallets.. these were military style 88x108ins pallet, not the normal 96/88 x 125ins you find usually... no problem as the aircraft was already configured for this and they had their own loading staff anyway. These military pallets came with their nets but as they were designed for C130 operations they came up very short..solution? drape the nets over the pallets and use jute rope and thread them between the edge of the nets and the base... about 2-3 feet!! Very iffy! A point of note..Military pallets do not use the stud track at the edge which accepts the single/double studs common on civillian ULDs, instead, the pallets have metal loops around the edges and the nets hook onto to them and are tightened like a strap.
The pallets were all built up on time and staged at the postion..
When the first pallet went it...it literally hit the roof! The pallet was built too tall.... this sometimes happens when pallets are not built up well, not a good start! After this was rectified, by the usual way, send a guy up to stomp on the cargo and re-tightening the net, it was found that the second, and third, and practically all pallets were over-height!
What happened was the forwarding agents gave the instructions to its staff as to the number of pallets and type/heights. The usual way the heights are specified is either 96 or 118ins ...the guys followed the instructions and measured the way they usually did (without any problems),from the floor of the pallet, WITHOUT taking into account the fact that the military pallet was about 2 inches thick! There was a lot of running around on the ramp on that day!
Anil
Charter was from the Mattel (they have a factory near KUL) for the Christmas season.
On the day of the flight (departure around 2200local), the freight company AEI (now absorbed into DHL-Danzas-Deutschpost etc) had only 5 guys doing the palletising AND sending the pallets into the customs warehouse..it was very close but that wasn't the only problem!
They ended up with an extra lower-deck pallet! After loading the bulk compt (two trolleys) we broke down the pallet and loaded it into the bulk... we had some left over, what now?
Well the B74SF doesn't have a nose door like its purpose built freighter sisters, instead it has a kind of storage area, maintenance usually keeps stuff like cases of engine/hydraulic oil and even spare tyres. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Since none of us in KUL were qualified for B74F loadsheet (it was on the way out even then...
), there was a load-master on board...we approached him and asked if we could load the overflow in the 'forward bulk' ..he asked "how many boxes do you have?" ... "a couple" was my reply!To speed things up we pulled back the left side barrier on the airstairs and angled the belt loader so it reached the doorway platform.. We could do this as the cartons were not heavy... We were lucky there was a loadmaster on board, even if we had been qualified I think it would have been difficult to convince the crew!
We couldn't put it the overflow on a later scheduled flight as there was no paperwork (AWB-airwaybill) and the customs had already been 'cleared'.
Didn't delay the flight much too!
..................
Another charter I remember was when I was working in SIN with CIAS, a ground handling agent..There were a lot of interesting charters and one memorable one was by a forwarder called 'Airmark' if I remember correctly. This was a B747 of the IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) which was specially built as an aerial refueller but still had cargo capability. There was a 'boom operator' in the rear and positions T and S were sacrificed for this. The operated had a contoured couch and lay face down and operated the 'flying boom', remember theIran Air Force had F14 Tomcats! There was a guardrail around this area to protect the operator (from falling freight?!). Some of the aircraft had nose-loading but some had a refuelling receiver in the nose just below the cockpit window.. there was no nose-door and on the inside you could see the hose running down the side of the airplane.
Anyway ...to get back to the charter... The IRIAF brought along their own pallets.. these were military style 88x108ins pallet, not the normal 96/88 x 125ins you find usually... no problem as the aircraft was already configured for this and they had their own loading staff anyway. These military pallets came with their nets but as they were designed for C130 operations they came up very short..solution? drape the nets over the pallets and use jute rope and thread them between the edge of the nets and the base... about 2-3 feet!! Very iffy! A point of note..Military pallets do not use the stud track at the edge which accepts the single/double studs common on civillian ULDs, instead, the pallets have metal loops around the edges and the nets hook onto to them and are tightened like a strap.
The pallets were all built up on time and staged at the postion..
When the first pallet went it...it literally hit the roof! The pallet was built too tall.... this sometimes happens when pallets are not built up well, not a good start! After this was rectified, by the usual way, send a guy up to stomp on the cargo and re-tightening the net, it was found that the second, and third, and practically all pallets were over-height!
What happened was the forwarding agents gave the instructions to its staff as to the number of pallets and type/heights. The usual way the heights are specified is either 96 or 118ins ...the guys followed the instructions and measured the way they usually did (without any problems),from the floor of the pallet, WITHOUT taking into account the fact that the military pallet was about 2 inches thick! There was a lot of running around on the ramp on that day!
Anil
Join Date: Apr 2004
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Part of the remains of chess genius Bobby Fischer to Stockholm, after a court had decided on a DNA match of him and his "daughter" who´s family was after some good old cash since his death.
Turned out she wasn´t his daughter!
Turned out she wasn´t his daughter!