Ben Wilhelmi

Boeing in mud, take off in Arusha, part IV

 

the plane had been scheduled for 6 am take off last Friday. I missed the part when the plane was put back on tarmac. Another pilot, a Boeing test pilot I heard, was called for this special take off. Preparations kept on all morning. Planes used the runway kind of as usual with this “50 ft obstacle”. Here a Caravan on landing. The Arushan crowd was still impressive on the outside perimeter.

 

Finally the stair is removed and engines are started around midday.

every single employee at Arusha airport wouldn’t miss the action. notice the dust being displaced by the engines run up. Discussions were interesting between pilots (none of us qualified on this kind of beast), the main question was where the B 767 would take off. I initially wanted to stay at the very end of the runway but then I had to work on our aircraft, I couldn’t wait hours outside.

 

 

not too sure what this white smoke is… ( update: this is white chalk from the painted displaced threshold)

 

powerful engines! The noise was deafening.

 

and surprise, the plane lifted at about 1000m only!

 

 

 

 

A Boeing lands in Arusha, part III

 

our Flying Medical Service C206 on short final.

 

a police biker escorted the mobile stair truck from Kilimanjaro airport.

 

a new digging machine, the nose wheel.

 

apparently some UN people were on board, which explain this UN guard on the spot.

 

another plane on final. The Boeing tail is definitely an obstacle. One good piece of news on a selfish level, except the show time, is that the terrible noisy ATR aircraft won’t probably come for a while and our ears will be grateful. Even when things are clear and normal, ATR landings can be rock’n’roll to say the least.

 

and the next day some airplanes landing.

 

 

 

 

notice the onlookers on the right side, less than yesterday but the excitement is still there.

A Boeing lands in Arusha, part II

 

another scene from the outside. Arushans don’t get such a treat very often. This airport, nevertheless the tarmacked runway, is not even allowed to be listed as an alternate airport for such a large airplane, a Boeing 767.

(the yellow sky is due to my windshield hue, not a heavy editing)

 

the immigration officers had to come all the way from Kilimanjaro airport. Later a mobile stair arrived too but all the passengers had left through this emergency slide.

 

 

the nose wheel is deeply buried at nearly 90 degrees, go and figure.

 

 

 

 

an airplane circling to land. What an excitement.

 

today the rumors and questions ended: the pilots mixed both airports, Arusha and Kilimanjaro, 27 miles apart. Arusha is 1600m long and much narrower than Kili at 3000m about... 8 tons of fuel on board, so the fuel shortage was not an issue

 

Boeing lands in Arusha, in mud! Part I

 

there are news that are hard to believe! Like a Boeing that landed in Arusha airport… A runway that is 1600m long makes it hard to fathom. And still here are some proofs. I went first to the outside of the airport. Traffic is normally nonexistent here. Thousands of Arushans came in to check too and created a traffic jam. People came on foot, by bike, by taxi, cars…quite some action.

 

I managed to park the car and have a look on threshold 09 where the Boeing 767 from Ethiopian Airlines had finished its landing mid day.

 

then I went inside. I expected some kind of police at work to keep onlookers at bay. Nothing like that. Welcome for all.

Note the emergency slide pulled down. The pilot had initially refused to let it loose, yelling at the airport authorities for not having any adequate ladders. Well Einstein, this airport is not listed as heavy plane friendly, so don’t expect it to be equipped accordingly. Finally all passengers left by that slide.

 

No marking, this plane, and the crew maybe, was on lease and this might help Ethiopian Airlines, which is normally a really good company, to brush off this ridiculous incident.

the pilot landed on runway 27, stopped safely on the other side. Instead of leaving the heavy plane here and have it pushed back by a special tug later the pilot chose to turn left through the wet grass…

baddest idea in the world of bad ideas…the nose wheel is buried nicely.

 

 

 

the airport had been closed for a few hours and here is the first plane checking the situation before landing.

to summarize the initial factor and series of mistakes, it all began in Kilimanjaro airport where a smaller airplane got stuck on the runway with a flat tyre. More than 2000m still available allowed a Rwanda express and a Uganda Airlines jet to land safely. Why this guy here chose to land on 1600m in Arusha instead is still a mystery. Cold feet? Go back to Nairobi. Short of fuel? Mixed airports….?

now the big question is how to get that thing out of the grass, and then out the runway. Engineers are going to sweat on that one. Minimum fuel, maybe remove all seats…