Final destination for the specialist cargo
Weight and balance
One of the most complex aspects, which was carefully analysed
by the Cargolux teams, was the aircraft weight and balance.
As Michael Verhuelsdonk, the Ground Operations Engineer
who travelled on board with the belugas, explains: “The main
concerns were related to the water transfer during the flight and
the resulting change of the aircraft’s centre of gravity. To reduce
the influence of the water transfer, the beluga tanks and the
spare water tanks were placed as close as possible to the centre
of gravity to avoid large changes during the transfer. Simulations
were done before the flight to ensure that under no circumstances
would the centre of gravity of the aircraft exceed the limits.”
The beluga care teams and the Cargolux teams worked
together in order to strike a balance between the whales’
requirements and the operational safety of the flight. According
to Marc Roveri, Head of Global Customer Services: “The biggest
challenge was to meet the requirements of the shipper as to the
amount of water needed for the well-being of the whales while
complying with what we could restrain. This is where we came up
with the solution of lowering the amount of water during take-off
and landing and increasing the amount while at cruising altitude.
Almost 3 tonnes of water per tank had to be moved in and out.”
These various constraints required patience and hard work
from the Cargolux teams who had to face a number of complex
issues throughout the planning. The original design of the
containers, although very well conceived in terms of stability,
was also modified for operational safety reasons. To ensure safe
transportation on board, features such as footprint, location
and required rating of the restraining lugs, as well as elements
related to the outcome of the risk assessment, had to be taken
into account.
The reception party
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Cargolux team
in Shanghai was also working hard to secure authorisations
solution to ensure a safe flight
and that the whales’ welfare
was upheld throughout the
journey.
Because of the complexity
of the project, the multidisciplinary
co-ordination
and integration of the risk
assessment required many
departments of Cargolux to be
involved: ground operations,
flight operations, engineering
(systems and avionics) were
all co-ordinated by the
Aviation Safety Department.
The big difference between
this flight and other animal
transports was the larger scale
of complexity. Indeed, despite
working in the industry
for almost 50 years, certain
aspects of the project were
entirely new to Cargolux.
There had never been such a
huge amount of water (up to
7,000 litres) on board in an
open container before, which
posed the question of water
sloshing about as well as the
risk of spillage. It was also the
first time that a camera system
had been installed on the
main deck for the care team to
supervise the belugas during
take-off and landing.
... many items
specific to the
transport of the
whales had to be
covered
Mattias Pak, Head of Aviation Safety,
Cargolux
www.airlogisticsinternational.com August 2019 47
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