THE LARGEST serially built cargo aircraft in the world had to divert and land at Shannon airport yesterday after the crew was forced to shut down an engine which gave problems over the North Atlantic.
The Polet Aviakompania Antonov AN-124-100 was conducting a freight flight (POT818) from Goose Bay, Newfoundland, in Canada to Frankfurt-Hahn in Germany.
The captain was forced to shut down an engine later reporting that they had had a problem with “low oil pressure”.
The aircraft, which was carrying a crew of six, was flying between southern Greenland and Iceland. It was about 1,000km northwest of Ireland but the crew decided to continue to Shannon airport with just three engines.
The aircraft touched down safely at 12.19pm, two hours after the pilot shut down the engine.
He required almost the full length of the 3.2km runway to bring the jet to a stop.
The aircraft was able to taxi unassisted to the terminal.
While the crew did not declare an emergency, the Irish Coast Guard Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre based at Valentia Island in Co Kerry issued a Pan- Pan radio message to fishing vessels off the west coast to advise them of the incident and to look out for the aircraft as it approached the Irish coast.
The Russian-built Antonov 124 is the world’s largest ever serially manufactured cargo aircraft and world’s second largest operating cargo aircraft.
The only cargo aircraft bigger than it is the Antonov 225 of which there is only one in operation.