Visitors to Alicante airport may have spotted this giant cargo plane parked in the area normally reserved for private aviation and wondered what it was.
It is an Antonov 124 which arrived from Mitiga Airport, Libya. It bears the Ukranian registration UR-82029, has a wingspan of almost 74m is 69m in length and weighs over 400 tons. It has been parked up for 9 days waiting to fly on to Malaga to pick up further cargo.
In all, Antonov Airlines have nine of these beasts of which 7 are in active service and 2 are on loan to other companies. This one was first delivered March 1992 and changed its registration in May 1993.
These giants of the sky are used to transport large cargo including other aircraft fuselages. Before this one, two other Antonov 124s have landed at El Altet, one from Paris which was carrying cars and motorbikes for the funeral procession of an African leader and the other, the Telefónica boat that took part in the first Volvo Ocean Race.
For such a large aircraft, the cockpit looks a bit small to me and rather austere.
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