Volga-Dnepr Airlines flies two fire engines from Britain to Afghanistan

RUSSIAN air freight carrier, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, has transported two Amdac Carmichael mobile fire fighting trucks from Britain to Kandahar in Afghanistan on behalf of freight forwarding customer, Transact International, which specialises in organising military and humanitarian aid shipments.

The 30-tons consignment was carried from East Midlands Airport to Afghanistan's second largest city located in the south of the country on board a Volga-Dnepr operated IL-76TD-90VD freighter flight.

Said Volga-Dnepr UK sales manager Georgy Sokolov: "The payload required a detailed engineering study as the fire engines' dimensions called for extremely precise loading into the cargo hold of the IL-76TD-90VD."

Evgeny Venikov, senior load planning engineer, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, performed an advance inspection of the two fire engines to confirm the trucks could be carried by the 50-tons capacity cargo aircraft and to ensure optimum load plan preparation.

A decision was taken to remove certain parts of the fire trucks and place them between the vehicles to give the clearances required onboard the aircraft. The payload was successfully placed into the cargo hold and arrived safely and on-time in Kandahar.