Il-96 freighter of Domodedovo Airlines drove away from the taxi track and bogged down in the earth in Yakutsk Airport Wednesday. The rescue operation took nearly a day.
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Il-96 Bogged Down at Takeoff
Yakutsk Airport is open again. It failed to service 20 flights from Wednesday to Thursday once the Il-96 freighter of Domodedovo Airlines blocked the runway centerline. When heading for the takeoff strip, the plane drove away from the taxi track and bogged down in the earth that got slushy after the pouring rain. The plane’s evacuation took nearly a day.
The incident happened Wednesday at around 5:00 p.m. local time. An empty Il-96 of Domodedovo Airlines that was making Anadyr-Moscow flight and had a crew of 11 was refilled in Yakutsk Airport and intended to continue the flight. But before the turn to the takeoff strip, the plane was carried aside at the low speed and ran away from the taxi track only to get bogged down in the mud in a few meters.
It was heavily raining for three days in Yakutsk, the earth got slushy and became like a bog, representatives of the airport explained.
The rescue operation started also on Wednesday, but all pulling efforts were abortive at first. Il-96 made only a meter and a half by Thursday morning. The breakthrough happened when the emergency services changed spades for a crane and bulldozers. The crane was laying concrete slabs under the aircraft, while the hauler and bulldozers were drawing it to the track.
The difficulty was that Il-96 blocked the runway centerline and no planes were able to take off or to land in the airport. The first An-24 left Yakutsk only on Thursday afternoon.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 25, 2006
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