Italian Air Force Airbus 319 at Casement

[Joe McDermott]

Afternoon all,

Just received word that an Italian Air Force A319 landed Casement at 13:00 today. No EDT yet.

[Joe McDermott]

ETD now believed to be 15:43 local.

[Guinness]

Pictures somebody '>

Guinness

[Frank]

Picture here:

http://www.irishairpics.com/database/photo/1022328/

[P.Doff]

It was picking up VIP's. They arrived by Dassault Falcon on Weds.

[Vertical T/O]

As a matter of interest what is the biggest aircraft to fly into or out of Baldonnel?

[Tony Kearns]

Quote (Vertical T/O @ 19 May 2007,07:41)

As a matter of interest what is the biggest aircraft to fly into or out of Baldonnel?

A Boeing 707 or a Globemaster (Congo Airlift). Perhaps some of you technical experts would decide.
Tony K

[Irish251]

The 707 would outstrip the C-124 and also the CL-44J (Aer Turas's EI-BRP landed in 1987) in terms of weight, though not in all dimensions.

[P.Doff]

I remember the 707 landing alright! It was a crock!!! Did an Aer Lingus 747 do a touch and go at one of the air spectaculars during the 80's or was it just a slow pass with gear down , cant remember?? I remember its fast/low run though, Wow, amazing to see such a big a/c fast and low!!

[Irish251]

The 747 flew past a couple of times (I have photos somewhere) but did not touch, I'm fairly sure.

[Joe McDermott]

Omega Air operated a B707-320 into Casement, in connection with a TV advert for Citron cars (standing by to be corrected, memory fading) , the BX I think. Lots of complaints were phoned in as the neigbours were not used to aircraft this size at the Don. The rest of the advert was shot in France, with the car nailed to the roof. (the IAA were having non of that !)

[Claudel Hopson]

The 747 did not touch down during thew airshow. Just a very slow low pass. Nice and noisy too.

[GoneToTheCanner]

That 707 was an ex-Olympic Airways example and was operated by McEvaddy's Omega Air.when it cam into the Don, the Dublin ATC had cleared it to route for a visual approach to the Don.It is said that the pilot took this to mean that he was cleared for a run across the city at the standard VFR height of a thousand feet.I was out in Rathmines at the time and heard and saw the smoky old crock roar over.The phones lit up all over Dublin as loads of people called the emergency services claiming that they saw a jet crashing, trailing lots of smoke......they were in the Don to make a war film and even had phony ammunition boxes and uniforms.The ad with the Citroen was planned to be done with a Jumbo and was later filmed in France...when that 707 took off, it used an awful lot of the runway and generated the usual trail of smoke and a chorus of more angry phonecalls....One of the lads slipped on the steps and broke his ankle.He survived this to become an Aer Arran captain.
Fun and games.
regards
GttC

[Irish251]

I believe this was the 707 in question:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0047168/M/

It was not ex-Olympic but rather was originally delivered to Pan Am.  Interestingly it has been broken up quite recently, having been stored at Southend following an internal fire.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1192369/M/

[GoneToTheCanner]

HI SF
I am certain it was ex-Olympic because all the manuals on the flight deck were original Olympic Airways manuals and there were Greek decals all over the place. The aircraft even had an astrolabe in the top of the cockpit, just aft of the flight engineer's seat for star shots. It might have been Pan Am's at some stage but it most definitely was Greek, once upon a time.
regards
GttC