With the Jet plane in Turkey that went off the runway and over to the salt chuck. How and what will it take to get it up on land again? I know money but know nothing else, about cranes or lifting, rigging.
We've got a runway here in town that usually gets someone with a crosswind once a year. You come in over a steep river cliff face, so the up draft pops you, and if the wind is strong out of the south, its crosswind. I've picked up single and twins, nothing real big. It's a pain, because its all designed to be held up from underneath by the landing gear, not picked up from the top. If you can get the covers off the engines, there's something there usually you can pick up on. The problem there, is thats a big old airplane, a 737-800 weighs 90,000, and is 120' wide or so. He's not far off the runway. I bet they drag it up onto the runway with some huge wreckers (maybe tank retrievers from their military). Then they'll pick it up with a couple cranes, maybe air bags, and put it on a trailer. They'll drag it into a hangar where NTSB and boeing will have their engineers crawl all over it for a year, then they'll scrap it.
I worked for Boeing for a few years & was involved with the AOG crews ( A irplane O n G round) that traveled all over the world fixing planes. Sometimes they'd put the lifting pads back on they use in the factory to pick them up. You'd be amazed what they will fix right there at the airport. And then, like me, never fly on another commercial aircraft again. Ever.
Just a few pictures. He's really not that far over the edge, they could get a crane in there and pick it up in one shot. Problem is they would have to shut down air operations while they do it, and that costs $. But they may be shut down until its cleared anyways. Some insurance company is going to take a little hit. 737-800 is $93 million for a new one. The smaller 737's are under 50 million. Even used its probably still a 20-30 million plane.
That can also go bad:
If they you to go over and help out take pictures for us crane operator, we are all cheering for you that you get the call
I'd hate to be the cleaning crew in the cabin and cockpit. Nothin' but **** and p!zz!! I feel for whoever didn't have their seat belt buckled Mike
Pictures? Shoot I'd dive right in, kick the tires and light the fires, stand back and hand me the levers, I'll plop that sucker on a trailer.... Junkyard? calling Junkyard? lowboy needed on runway #1.........
Your the man, with your knowledge if you hear how this job is going could you let us all know I am sure many here are interested. PS the wife is baking cup cakes with flags crane operator for Pres..
I'm in, just tell me when and where. I will need a little time to repair one spindle that decided to throw a fit and catch on fire today......
Its cold enough you could have just drove it in a snowbank. Lose tires and rims too? Hopefully you didn't get the spindle. I got lucky myself, I fixed a flat on the trailer, and in trying to knock the rims off, discovered a loose bearing and of course it had taken out the seal.
I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I don't think I'm crooked enough for politics- I'm only smart enough to tell the truth, I couldn't remember my lies.
We didn't get any snow around tulsa and west. It melted the plastic cap and was flaming pretty good. It went from a wisp of smoke to fire in less than a mile. The first extinguisher I grabbed was no good, froze I assume idk. Grabbed one out of the rig and put it out. Didn't blow any tires or lose the hub. I'm thinking inner bearing failure which knocked the seal out...you get the rest lol. Thankfully it was the lift axle. I was about 20 miles from the next job so I lifted the axle and went on my way. I went from a little overweight to a lot! Haha. I'll take pics when I tear into it tomorrow.
I thought that is what lift axles are for a lot of tridem trailers here have lifts on all 3 axles for a reason.
As a pilot, and a hoisting engineer, I had to laugh at this. The good thing is no one got killed or even injured on the plane. Seeing a plane like this is not that uncommon, when flying with Super Cub types and doing a lot of off airport stuff, not so much an airliner of course. Those two knuckle boom crane operators.......had a lot of nerve or something to hook on to that thing, I can imagine their shock when they pulled up to the job site, "you want us to what!" https://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/101/3897-full.html?ET=avweb:e3897:527231a:&st=email#230170 I just moved this post to this thread, since as stated below, it's the same topic. Digger242j
Getting back to the airplane for a minute... I wonder if it wouldn't make as much sense to use a barge mounted crane and pick it up from the water? It's not a whole lot closer to the top of the hill than it is to the bottom. Or does working from the water add too much complexity and cost to make that a viable option?
Well shoot, I posted about this incident before I saw a thread was already underway on it, sorry about that. The AV world I'm a small part of is (since no one got even injured) pretty amused by this. Can you imagine the pilot and co pilots view of the last few feet before coming to a stop? I'm sure they thought they were toast, and probably still are pinching themselves! As far as how they are going to get it out, how about reverse thrust? Just back it right on out of there, piece of cake. And yes, that is a joke.
Are there crane companies in Turkey that have huge cranes for this job?? and how big of a crane would one need??
Barge mounted is worse and more expensive. The barge has to hold the weight of the crane, and the plane, and then its all about list charts and tides and currents- a whole can of worms. It would be doable, and theres barge stuff that would lift it, I think it would just make it more complicated than it needs to be. Anything that drafts much water isn't going to want to get very close to shore. Then once you had it picked up (barge), where would you go with it? Most of the time they would have to have another barge to then set the plane on, and then you still have to unload it and get it back to dry ground. And haul it to a hanger for study/ dismantling. I bet they do it from the top. Good ground and can just wheel transport it from there. With all the oil and shipping in turkey, I'm sure there's something available. If not, there's company's that specialize in moving large stuff world wide. Mammoet is one that comes to mind, and there's others. Probably 500- 700 ton rig, depending on what the ground is like just off the runway. Most runways are 18-24" of concrete, but I think they could get closer by being off the runway.
GMK 500 ton with mega wing/luffer can take 90,000 to 95' radius or so. Looks like the tail of the plane is even with the top of the bank, so that might do it. Manitowoc 18000 which is a 600 ton lattice could take it to 160-180' radius or a little more, that would probably do the trick. If you've got the max-er counterweight extender for the 18000 you could get to 300' radius.
Max-er is a setup about like this picture, (this ones a liebherr, but their similar in design) That extra counterweight way in the back, can be suspended, or you can put it on a wheeled carriage for using on long term jobs. Then they only lift it off the ground when they need the capacity. Set up to do the 300' radius would take 1,672,000lbs of counterweight. Thats carbody weights, frame weights, plus hanging weights. Bare crane is probably close to 400,000 just frame, carbody and crawlers. So roughly 2 million pounds or so.
I guess they would want to remove jet as soon as they can so a week or so to get it all together?????
No tires or wheels on that weight horse, weird
My guess is that it was only for I lift and when the lift is happening the weight would come off the ground..
That and they are only interested in booming down
That's an interesting plane Crane Op posted. It flies loops to simulate zero G ... AKA the "Vomit Comet" Want to ride it ? http://www.gozerog.com/index.cfm
The wagons without wheels mostly stay off the ground. They stay close to the ground and move in and out as needed. If the crane boomed up you would see that wagon move in. Telescoping weights. Thinks that's leibherr way of doin things. Manitowoc's wagons are on wheels and are mostly fixed radius. The wheels on the wagon steer depending what you need. I can't see the point in getting a crane to pick that plane. Two big wreckers and she's back on the runway in less time then it takes to put a gmk7550 together. If you can even do it with that. Building a big crawler isn't a small job.
A little more research... The plane pictured is in Europe. If you want to ride the plane pictured, you'll have to cross the pond. http://www.airzerog.com/
I read on an aviation forum that the two knucklebooms Natman mentioned were there to remove the baggage, and also that they're working on a pad for a crane to lift the aircraft.
Thanks for the up date Digger.
Did this one in the dark on christmas eve if I remember correctly. Doctor with all his family flying home after a christmas party. "Supposedly" the light came on that the gear was down, but it landed on its belly on the runway. It was dark and snow/ rain when we got there. I think he was trying to beat the storm in, and got distracted. I know the mechanic was pretty nervous because he worked for him directly, and had just gone through the plane evidently.
Did this one inside a building
Dug out some older ones:
This was a fun one to rig, it had to be picked up flat, then rotated pitch and yaw both, to be positioned how they wanted it. The last picture is when I was setting the engine in, I had to boom down quite close to the tail to set the motor, I was to lazy to move the crane. I could have flown the plane with the engines in, but if I remember right, I was concerned about having enough crane, (Imagine that, no one knew what it would weigh).
Crane operator you have the best job in the world every day every job is different and you are a master of the Challenges.....
Oh its not all glamor hank, I spent today running my custom snow pusher, its a little crude, but it does the job
PM sent
Not much excitement, but a pretty good view of how they got it rigged and back up on level ground:
Thanks digger, I am surprised that they have the jet removed so fast day wise.
There's about 50 more people there than they really needed. Looked like way too many bosses for me. Notice how everyone was out of the work area? Thanks for posting the video digger. Did you also see everyone scurrying around looking for a tag rope when they were on it with just the blue/ white crane. He broke ground on the nose and it started twisting around toward his boom and everyone took off.
[QUOTE="crane operator, Thanks for posting the video digger. Did you also see everyone scurrying around looking for a tag rope when they were on it with just the blue/ white crane. He broke ground on the nose and it started twisting around toward his boom and everyone took off.[/QUOTE] ya I know my arse puckered up just like if I was in the seat myself.
The part I really liked was when they all lined up for the group photo, at around 14:30 and again at around 15:00. Hard to tell how far removed from that 90,000 # suspended load they were....
Sure seemed to be a lot of people standing around with their hands in their pockets. It was also a little different to see some army people there carrying weapons? I was also wondering why fire hoses were being used to wash out mud on the internals of the engine and sides of the plane. What few accident investigations I've been a part of, nothing was done except by the investigators.
Maybe they were washing spilled fuel from the plane. I wonder if the starboard engine was removed or torn off.
There’s hydraulic cylinders at the top of the counterweight pendants that lift the weight tray off the ground.