We were a private 707-320C, fully loaded with a ground to air guided missile system (missiles, warheads, launch system etc.) from Singapore to Dubai.

While flying in the Madras FIR we had an airmiss with a KLM 747, flying eastwards, that was cleared by Madras to climb through our flight level.

At the end of the aircraft to aircraft conversation with KLM, regarding who would report the incident, the KLM skipper said 'that could have been a very serious accident' we replied 'you have no idea how serious'!!!!!

DC-8-73F full of paper money.

2 billion Riyals from Jeddah to Riyad.
Had armed guards and holy water onboard. The guards to keep the pilots honest. The holy water for blessing the money.

Yes, we did discuss how to de-pressurize to put the guard out of business, then set course for Brazil...There was a slight fuel problem however...:ooh:

Freight itself was not that out of the ordinary, but the circumstances:
A fairly recent Maybach (basically a severly pimped Mercedes) from Kinshasa to Europe, due to go to Denmark I believe, for an inspection.
Don't know if customs had a closer look on arrival though :E
KA

built by GM in North America. Timescale for delivery and introduction was very tight. If they all came by sea, there would not have been time to train all the drivers and maintenance engineers in advance of scheduled introduction. Flying the first one over gave a couple of extra weeks for the training programme so that the rest could be used almost from the dockside


an ex colleague of mine claimed to have been the loading master on that flight - never sure if he was telling the truth or not :hmm:

For a number of years I was on the receiving end of the freight - delivered mostly to Northern Virginia & NW Wash DC. Had a delivery to the FBI building, small box about 10 inches long and 5-6 inches square. Sounded like something was loose inside as I approached the guard gate, so I check the waybill for the description...

"Human hand - crime evidence" :eek:

Gave me the creeps for the rest of the day. :ooh:

Cheers, y'all.

30 pairs of human eyes....

My first post here, greetings from the Pacific Northwest! It would have to be 170,000 pounds of strawberries! I can still smell 'em:yuk:
fbh

35,000 "beneficial insects".

Not itching yet!

Eric, care to elaborate on those insects?

I fly bugs all the time. The Colorado farmers regularly import potato bugs to fertilize their crops. Maybe the pesticides they use also kill the good bugs. One little box really stinks up the plane. I'm guessing the honey bees are also for crop fertilization, but I don't know. Lots of crickets; fishbait maybe? The nightcrawlers are labeled as fishbait right on the box.

Five lions :ooh:, in a 747 combi years ago to go to the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Oz.

Kenyan DNATA (DXB) Manager in a box!!!
 

Just heard the weirdest! Due to internal fraud and trying to escape the consequences a manager who's passport was taken to prevent him leaving the country.He tried to get home to Kenya and had taken "enough" O2 bottles,food/water, and blankets hid in a box destined for cargo however was detected when he :{:{tapped on the box to get out!!!! Seems like he had got his taste of the time but in a 4x2 box would he not have been better off in a cell!!!!!Ergo don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time!!!!!!!!

My favorite the 3 original GT40's that finished 1st 2nd 3rd at 1966 Le Mans, plus a prototype "new" GT40 and Caddy concept car, all for Goodwood festival of speed. We got a dab hand that weekend lifting PMC 's onto the floor from a set of four, and wheeling the cars off. happy days !!

Aaah flying in Africa! a live goat in a bag a pax tried to sneak on, a baby in a kit bag a pax did sneak on(UN flying in DRC) Over 1kg of cut diamonds (Botswana).A freeze dried tiny antelope of some kind stuffed into a cooler box, Equatorial Guinea. A colleague flying for DHL was rudely interrupted on the descent into Libreville by a very drunk ground handler who somehow passed out in the back of the ATR (after loading freight in Malabo)and only woke up on the descent, had to spend a few days in LBV before paxing back. Oh and definitely the smelliest was a stinky pax who was told he couldn't use the loo ,as it wasnt possible to service the damn thing in Kisangani, so he promptly sh@t on his seat(UN DRC):=

For me it was a coffin in Cessna310 fron Madagascar to Comoros. To load it, we have to put down the wing's door....then in flight it was an unusual passenger.... I dont know why but the deceased man didn't like the flight and the coffin start to smell very bad during descent :yuk: .

TowerDog
 

2 mil Rats won't get ya anywhere, can't just nip into Ala Moudi's and get it fixed. Couple of mil dollari, yup! Just divert with the odd Head of the National Guard enroute to his West African hawking safari would've done it!!!! Bin there, seen it, thought about it, did it? Well can't hide a N/TF reg 8 can ya?

525kg of frozen chicken wings 3 times a week from Kununurra ( Australia )to a remote Aboriginal camp called Kallumbaru in a C207.......one word :mad: frightening!!!

Sydney, Aus. to New York (via LAX) in an MD11-- 1 6x6 crate with 5 Picasso's. (The handler was gorgeous)

freight
 

Never really wanted to post this but , 144 tonnes two trips DC-1030F
Prestwick to Carracus (Venezuela) i no you all no
with cases of JONNY WALKER RED LABEL WHISKEY very odd but the guy on the ground was happy ,and we never even got one single bottle to share

such is life !!!!!!!!!!

And someone please back me up don't we ALL LOVE Goats from IRELAND

Wierdest?
 

I hauled dolphins in a DC3 from Kansas City, to Gulfport Mississippi for a casino once. I hauled 9500 pounds of explosives in a Convair 340 from Florida to St Croix once. I hauled 4000 POUNDS of catheters in a DC3 to Chihuahua Mexico once.

Strange
 

What about a Liquid oxygen tank that need the beluga to carry it from
new orleans to the skunk works (SAC) for the X-33 (replacement space shuttle - now shelved) . A few months later it was pressured tested and blew sky high hence end of the X-33 program

rgds
downunderontop

Fresh live prawns caught in Alaska, packed in ice and seawater. Every styrofoam box we grabbed as we loaded would start vibrating loudly as the prawns would thrash around inside the box....They felt rather LARGE for prawns.....
Flew them down from Ketchikan, Alaska to Vancouver as the many fine seafood restaurants awaited.
Night flight down from the panhandle following the western coast of B.C. We were bulked out and the boxes were pretty much right behind us...
Everytime we hit a few bumps, they boxes would all start thrashing in unison. Sounded like a facehugger alien about to scuttle up your shoulder....:ooh:

Real Scottish Whisky from scottish grapes out of Taipei, but no bugger will believe that.
ln fact, it was going south internally, guess the korean sailor market was hot in Gowshung.

tangles500; When did this happen ? I was doing a navy camp at Walvis and said dolphins were "pooled" at the navy base prior to shipent to Durbs - i have photo's of these dolphins - interested ?

#110,000 pounds of softshell crabs from MNL to TPE.

I remember a delivery flight of an Saudi L-1011 out of Palmdale, with entire C-3 (bulk) cargo compartment filled with "Toilet Paper".

Back in 90, Out of Europe to Jeddah with A DC-8 full to the nuts with Wedding gifts for a Saudi prince (or whatever). The most interesting item was the full size horse made of Gold. It took up two positions up front. There was also another B-747 loaded with gifts as well right behind us. The other memorial trip was with the same DC-8 loaded to the max with brand new paper currency $$$$ on it's way to Jeddah. The 3 of us were dreaming of all the possibilities, diverting and what not. Don't know if it was true but someone in Jeddah told me it didn't have any serial numbers on it yet. It was fun dreaming though.:{
Also, Whales and other fish, C4 and other weapons, pigs, horses, cows and Bull's, 600 deer, rat's, chickens, spiders,frogs, Oil of Olay, Jeans, Prisoners, Coka Cola concentrate( highest security ever) Cocaine in various methods of packaging:= Cars including "James Bond's", F1 race cars trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, all kinds of chemicals,things that glow in the dark, and...People dead and alive. .:}

Strange freight
 

Fascinating and often highly amusing tales from you guys who all seem to have the same - drier than a nun's dry bits - sense of humour too. Presumably from many years of second-guessing your commercial departments/weight claims/loadies in a hurry etc etc.

Whilst I can't claim to be even an apprentice freight-dog I did have an amazing experience whilst in Sudan, December 1979. I was (unqualified, rhs) in a Cessna402B Utiliner operating off an earth strip (yes, the original salesman must have laughed all the way to the bank) Sobat Camp (Jonglei Canal Project). We had arranged to fly to Juba (southern Sudan) to load some fresh pork (strictly hush hush) for the Christmas celebrations at the camp. En route we get commandeered by the Sudanese government (to transport the 'coffin' of a government minister killed in a car crash the day earlier). Attempts to refuse met with threats of the a/c being grounded for keeps so we had to say yes.

Land Juba. Hurry up and wait for at least 2 hours and then suddenly this vast throng of wailing, chanting mourners arrive in several Landcruisers with a packing case customised as a coffin. They, despite attempts at dissuading them, surround the a/c and the immediate relatives try and board. I remember stopping one guy pulling at the static wicks!

After a huge struggle to get the box on board we had room/weight for the guy's wife and 2 others. We then flew to a strip (run by a Dutch agri-research outfit but I can't remember the name of the place) near his local village and were met by a huge mob of fully painted/dressed to the nine's/assegai'd up tribesmen who virtually dragged the box off the a/c and carried it off on their shoulders, chanting at the top of their voice.

Suffice to say that by the time we got back to Juba, the pork was off !

Apologies for this being somewhat longer than most of the tales on here but the episode has lived me with me very vividly!

Eagle402

well, luxury cars is fairly normal these days, i loaded 12 Wolves and dog last week to siberia, they will be starring in a film they are shooting,

film will come out next year, the project name is " Wolves" dont know what the film will be called,

210000 lbs. of Polar Beer, from Caracus to Miami. Who drinks that rot-gut ?:bored:

007 Aston
 

The 007 Aston in the latest Bond Movie Casino Royale

Didn't happen to me, but there's this story in the company about a first officer on a 747F who went for a walk and didn't return for a long time. When he finally did, he said that while he was on the main deck he found a dog, a sheperd that had managed to escape from his box. He then put that dog back into the box. The captain, checking the freight papers found out they didn't have a single sheperd on board - just wolves..

Sultan of Oman's Air Force C130, Salalah to Seeb mid-80's.

Large cardboard box marked "Snacks" brought on board. Box stowed on flight deck in the hope it was something really good to eat. During flight something in the box starts moving so it gets moved to the back for the Omani Loadie to take care of. Turned out to be a box of highly poisonous snakes going to some government place for them to research anti-venom. The Pakistani that labeled the box did his best at spelling "snakes" but was slightly off.

Same route and vice-versa, the Sultans personal stable of racing camels. Highly valuable and incredibly bad-tempered beasties.

Pictures
 

Hi Guys / Girls,

A lot of amusing stories on this post, how about adding some photo's ??

Pictures?

Can't := Classified, Old Chap :cool:

Pictures
 

Go on I won't tell !!

It's funny cause in all those years of flying box's I never thought to take a picture of the freight. :ugh:

3,5 tons of Caviar from Tehran to Frankfurt

1 tiger from Frankfurt to Budapest

From TLV to FRA a mining lamp lit at the church in Bethlehem where Jesus is supposed to have been born, with a fireman next to it. There were boys and girlsscouts on board to carry down the flame in FRA and give it to protestant and catholic bishops... the weather was very bad, and the poor kids puked all over their uniforms during the flight, though...

15kg of cut diamonds

...

The secretest secret load with extra secretness
 

Stuff so secret that if I told you what it was 50 million ninjas infected with HN-51 (who also happen to be freemasons) hired by the same arm of the CIA that blew up the WTC would absail from black helicopters with no lights on and they would all simultaneously give you the touch of death and then you would be dead and no-one would ever know that you existed because they would erase your identity.

That is how secret this was, and it was even more secret than all the other stuff that other people on here have "claimed" is so secret that they can't tell you about it or verify it for that matter.:mad:

Regular run: 2 x F27 (knackered), MAD - CDG and CDG - MAD each week night for Fedex (without Tom Hanks, thenk the Lord!). One night, Elliot, MAD - CDG, 2hrs +, no autopilot, mucho icing etc., no freight at all. Nix. Nada. Rien.

:ugh:

Strange loads
 

Can anyone remember Ace Freighters flying 2 tons of Nitro Glycerine a time
(Frozen in CarDice packed containers) from Lyneham to Woomera
in 1966. Did three trips on one of these.
Apparently for the Snowy Mountain Dam scheme in Aus.
Lovely SMOOTH landings