Logwin commissioned the Frankfurt office of the global aircraft charter specialist Chapman Freeborn to charter four Antonov 124 freight aircraft.
Three planes took off for Chile on October 15, 16 and 17; the fourth machine had already transported the first shipment of goods to Santiago de Chile at the beginning of October.
G'teborg Airport
Two Antonov AN-124s are ready on the tarmac. One machine is already loaded and will soon be taking off for South America. Work is still under way on the second cargo plane, with the ramp being set up and aligned.
The Antonov AN-124 is the second largest freight aircraft in the world and features a nose and tail can be opened hydraulically.
Flat-bed trucks, special cranes and loading equipment stand at the ready, and the loadmaster and ten technicians control and monitor loading into the plane. A total of more than 30 people are at work inside and outside the aircraft.
Made-to-measure steel suit
Each Antonov takes around 100 tons of cargo on board in G'teborg, with the freight consisting of pipes for a heat exchange system. The bundles of pipes have been packed in custom-made steel frames for transport.
The extra-wide construction has been designed to fit the Antonov's dimensions to a tee and equipped with the parts needed to secure the load safely. The freight for each plane consists of three elements each 21.1 meters long and weighing 30 tons.
Loading requires precision. Two special cranes are needed to lift the extremely heavy components from the flat-bed truck to the aircraft's loading carriage. Technicians located inside and outside the machine continuously monitor the correct position of the freight.
Constant measuring, alignment and adjustment needs to be done before it can be finally set down in the middle with thanks to precision work with the crane. The instructions of the Russian loading specialists have to be relayed to the two crane operators in Swedish.
The loadmaster takes a last expert look to check that everything is correct before cranes lower the elements onto the carriage to within a millimetre of the calculated position. It fits like a glove. Several chains are used to winch the freight slowly into the aircraft.
Everything on board
It takes six hours of hard work before the freight is safely stowed away inside and the technicians can remove the ramp. This completes loading for the third machine, and the particular challenges have now almost become routine for loading the fourth and final aircraft.
All that remains to do is to take 45 tonnes of kerosene on board to fly the plane for the first leg of the journey to Lisbon. The Antonov will have to land and refuel a total of four times before reaching its final destination.
The aircraft will fly more than 13,000 kilometers via Lisbon/Portugal, Sal/Cape Verde Islands, Recife/Brazil and Rio de Janeiro/Brazil to its destination in Santiago de Chile.
However, the plane expected from Leipzig experiences technical problems. The departure from there and arrival in G'teborg will have to be deferred by six hours, which means that the schedule must be readjusted.
The plans need to be changed since it is not allowed to erect the required crane in G'teborg at night. A special permit must therefore be obtained for the plane to be able to take off at 8 a.m. on Sunday as scheduled - and it works. The last of the four Antonovs takes off for Chile on schedule, too. After two and a half days, the plane reaches its destination as planned on Tuesday October 19.
Planning right down to the last detail
This
