Manchester Airport 5th October Richard Bowater
I was lucky enough to fit in one trip to Manchester in March
this year when I was asked to help out with a bit of sphere
shaped balloon maintenance. I then promised myself I would go
back sometime during the summer to see the charted in aircraft.
The summer came and went and an initial trip planned for the 28th of September was scrubbed and the week after was lined up, in the mean time Monarch airlines stopped trading and the rescue mission was on. The weather forecast was good on the night before, bright with a possibility of a light shower. On arrival it was dry and the sun just hadn’t got up as yet so the walk through the woods was a bit interesting dodging the puddles and mud.
The first few departures were in the dark but the golden hour
soon came round with the sun rise. The sun also started the
process of clouds building up and heading for my location on the
airfield. The morning continued with sunshine and showers
unfortunately. The backup fleet wasn’t fantastic with High fly
producing our old DTVA friend CS-TQP a couple of Transat’s an
A330 and an A310. Wamos air produced an A330 which strange
enough used to be G-SMAN of Monarch. 9H-JAI A340 stayed parked
up all day. The possible highlight was A7-ADB an A320of Qatar
Airways which appeared in the afternoon before the final
downpour.
The resident airlines produced most of their chartered in craft
with two leased Air Taker A330s operated by Jet 2 and Thomas
Cook. Jet 2s Titan A321 and unfortunately only one of the three
LY- A321 of Thomas Cook appeared. Other highlights being the
Special wildlife Emirates A380 and the KLM retro 738 which
escaped the camera due to another downpour!
With the PIA 777 lined up the sky turned black once more and the
rain could be seen approaching too so it was time to go,
unfortunately it was just after 2.00pm and on a good a it might
of been worth staying.
Richard.
Some images from the day