In the old days we took the zamzam water off the pax in Jeddah, empty them, then the bottles were refilled at KUL on arrival. I have to say the Malaysian pax were great. Nigerian pax were the equivalent of a Friday night Ibiza (that's not even a decent comparison) and most decent carriers didn't go near them..

You are not going to make friends in Malaysia !
I remember stories of the very first Hadj flights from Mauritania to Jeddah by Spantax, (early 70's) where on the inbound flights people were starting fires in the galley to brew tea and on the return leg they got a few 100ft max rate climb after level off due vast amount of zamzam water ad holy sand carried as in hand luggage . I thought that by now the lessons were learnt and that hand baggage is now weighted there . is it not the case ? .

Even in the aisle according to my wife (a former F/A). They also had to give them lessons on how to use the loos :eek:

Camp fires in the aisle confirmed by a 74 driver friend who had done several Hajj trips.

I did the Hajj for five years (747 and 767), everything written here rings a bell. I still would not have missed this experience for anything.

I've been around these Hajj flights and to be honest the loading and weights were all over the place. I've seen DC-10s/MD-11s (World Airways) with zamzam water just chucked into the holds (no pallets of containers), bags on pallets without nets. (Saudia) just a tarpaulin to keep things in place. Headcounts were also innaccurate, not surprising when getting the pax to board was like herding cats.

Anilv

My guess is they attempted a 3 engine landing and applied reverse on all three...

Lets see.....

Anilv

I was told at Wardair that airframes about to undergo a D check were sent on Hajj – and new interiors post D check.

One wonders of the air line will change their name so they might not be confused with the other Max ?.:rolleyes:

maybe the engine didnt collapse fully, and some drag from a partially collapsed engine caused the runway excursion

Anyone out there have any photos?

The consensus among the conflicting reports in the Nigerian press appears to confirm that an engine contacted the runway on landing, shedding parts and damaging the runway surface.

Whether there was a runway excursion and/or evacuation is somewhat less clear.

Here

https://samchui.com/2019/09/08/max-a.../#.XXV35SgzaUk

ATC

This was 1983 so a few's ago. I think average weights were used. As Svhar stated I learnt so much as a twenty something.

Max Ward (another Max !) always took considerable pride in the presentation of his aircraft, inside and out. I'm surprised he even considered doing the Hadj. Were the charter rates really that lucrative ?

Likely the airframe(s) went straight from Hajj to D check and interior replacement, likely at Shannon.

To/from Canada Max offered the odd special to/from Shannon D checks.

I guess it would have to be in those odd years when the Hadj, which shifts by a couple of weeks every year, was in the Autumn, between the summer Transatlantic operation and the winter snowbirds flights.

I used to think Wardair had their heavy work done by Eastern in Miami.

Ohhhh my.....
Straight from the link:
This guy should be in politics :p