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strangest freight

Freight Dogs Finally a forum for those midnight prowler types who utilise the unglamorous parts of airports that many of us never get to see. Freight Dogs is for pilots and crew who operate mostly without SLF.

strangest freight

Old 30th Dec 2016, 09:21
  #421 (permalink)  
 
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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.
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Old 2nd Jan 2017, 14:21
  #422 (permalink)  
 
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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.
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Old 2nd Jan 2017, 18:09
  #423 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by airnostalgia
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.
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.
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Old 20th Aug 2017, 10:07
  #424 (permalink)  
 
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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.
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 12:21
  #425 (permalink)  
 
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Exit stage left

Last edited by HughBenhad; 15th Nov 2017 at 13:01.
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 13:34
  #426 (permalink)  
 
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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!
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Old 28th Aug 2017, 03:12
  #427 (permalink)  
 
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Had a couple of tons of silicone breasts the other day
Sounds like most of my flights with Virgin Atlantic.
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Old 28th Aug 2017, 04:06
  #428 (permalink)  
 
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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!
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Old 1st Sep 2017, 06:32
  #429 (permalink)  
 
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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
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Old 9th Sep 2017, 09:02
  #430 (permalink)  
 
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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...
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Old 10th Sep 2017, 02:11
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Was the tank new or well used?
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Old 12th Sep 2017, 06:57
  #432 (permalink)  
 
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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 !
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 01:21
  #433 (permalink)  
 
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hi

Originally Posted by bacardi walla
I could tell you what the strangest cargo I ever carried was, but then I would have to shoot you. lets just say it involved flying under the cover of darkness, flanked by 2 nice shiny silver jets and we flew over a lot of sand.............

whoop whoop pull up -
Yes we all know what MOONSHINE Is the answer is who had it
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 01:21
  #434 (permalink)  
 
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Guess we all need Moonshine in Saudi and other dry places to quench the thirst
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Old 8th Mar 2018, 15:49
  #435 (permalink)  
 
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Chartered a AN124 from EMA to ARN with 500kg only - Air intake Cowl Assy 345x345x202cm

Few flights of day old chicks SOB-ASM

coffin, twice
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Old 9th Mar 2018, 00:27
  #436 (permalink)  
 
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4kg of AOG material.
Equipment? B744F..
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Old 11th Mar 2018, 21:36
  #437 (permalink)  
 
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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!
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Old 12th Mar 2018, 03:31
  #438 (permalink)  
 
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A DC-3 load of empty new coffins from Brisbane to Sydney due to coffin makers strike in Sydney.
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Old 4th Aug 2018, 10:21
  #439 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by parafinburner
Guess we all need Moonshine in Saudi and other dry places to quench the thirst
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 Oct 2020 at 12:30.
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Old 24th Aug 2018, 14:00
  #440 (permalink)  
 
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A load of water/acid fire extinguishers to FI. Very heavy as they were shipped full of water. Doh!
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