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Polet Cargo Airlines transported a special
piece of cargo on behalf of the Cooper Cameron Corporation
(CAM), a world leader in supplying equipment used to control
pressure and direct flows at or near the surface, or wellhead,
of oil and gas wells. The 48 ton “Christmas Tree”
- a term used by the Oil & Gas industries relating to
a specialised piece of drilling equipment - and extra mining
equipment weighing a total of 89 tons was transported using
one of Polet’s Antonov 124-100 aircraft which is capable
of carrying up to 120 tons of cargo. Alexey Ozerov Vice
President of Polet Cargo Airlines in New York comments;
“The Antonov 124-100 is ideally suited to transport
this type of cargo and with the added bonus of our highly
skilled and customer orientated support teams all Polet
customers can be sure of a smooth ride every time”.
A fully qualified Load master liaised on site with Cooper
Cameron representatives to make sure the special requirements
for transporting the “Christmas Tree” consignment
were met and his specific technical solution ensured the
whole operation went smoothly and progressed according to
plan.
The special cargo was transported from the Cooper Cameron
plant in Leeds, United Kingdom, to the East Midlands Airport
where the consignment was loaded onto one of Polet’s
Antonov 124-100 aircraft using Polet’s revolutionary
six platform configurable rail loading system. This unique
loading system is based on a series of linked metal rails
that butt together to form a continuous ramp with built-in
rollers that extend inside the aircraft’s cargo cabin
and facilitate the loading and unloading of extra-heavy
one-piece cargo loads weighing up to 100 tons.
A team of Polet technical loaders completed the loading
in record time and a spokesman for Cooper Cameron UK said,
“ We are more than happy with the customer awareness
and professionalism shown by Polet and are confident we
are in safe hands”.
Strict conditions of highway closure were imposed by the
U.S. authorities for the transportation of the “Christmas
Tree” consignment by road from Houston to the seaport
of Galveston in the Gulf of Mexico. The Houston police authorities
had authorised the closure of one highway, during daylight
hours only, for the “Christmas Tree” to be transported
to the seaport ready for testing on Friday morning.
As the Antonov 124-100 was not scheduled to land until noon
on Thursday the highway closure deadline gave a very tight
time window to unload the consignment from the Antonov 124-100,
load it onto the road transport vehicles – supplied
and organised by the freight forwarder Kuehne & Nagel
who transport it to Galveston before sunset. The Antonov
124 landed on time at noon on Thursday and Polet’s
technical ground crew unloaded the whole cargo in a remarkable
and record breaking time of just three hours. The previous
best time, achieved by other Antonov 124-100 operators,
was six hours to unload a similar cargo. The speed and efficiency
of Polet’s technical ground crew more than delighted
the 15 representatives of Cooper Cameron who were in attendance
to see this well planned and well co-ordinated operation.
A spokesman for Cooper Cameron said: “We are more
than impressed with the efficiency, speed and professionalism
of such an outstanding company as Polet Cargo Airlines”.
The unique cargo was delivered to the Galveston seaport
ahead of the ‘sunset’ deadline enabling Cooper
Cameron to test the “Christmas Tree” on Friday
and Saturday. Following successful testing the cargo was
loaded onto a ship on Sunday morning and taken 130 miles
offshore to its final destination where it was lowered into
the sea and connected to other oil drilling machinery. When
all pieces of the consignment are connected together the
final construction resembles a “Christmas Tree”.
Once again this successful operation demonstrated the professional
attitude and capabilities of all Polet staff involved in
the operation, especially the aircraft technical crew who
are responsible for taking critical decisions within stringent
time scales.
Date:- October 2003
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