January 29th 2020, a flight from Wuhan, China carrying U.S. government personnel and some private Americans landed in California.
It is interesting to see how the US government made this evacuation successful.
As reported, the flight originally was planned to be operated by a Boeing 767 passenger plane and going to Ontario Airport; but for some reason, none of these became true.
As a result, a Kallita Air Boeing 747-400F, with registration N705CK, cargo aircraft flew to Wuhan to pick up passengers.
Here is how the aircraft went to Wuhan from the US with flight number K49372: on January 26th, N705CK left Oscoda–Wurtsmith Airport located in Michigan and proceeded to Anchorage, Alaska; on January 27th, N705CK left Anchorage and proceeded to Seoul Incheon, South Korea; on January 28th, N705CK left Seoul and landed at Wuhan, China at about 22:00 local time.
About 05:00 in the morning the next day, the aircraft left Wuhan and flew directly to Anchorage, Alaska, to get fuel, then proceeded to Riverside March Air Reserve Base, California.
Not only is the route interesting, but there are also some pictures around the internet showing how this cargo aircraft was converted into a passenger jet.
Cover Picture: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu
It was better than acquiring the Wuhan corona virus, really,
I am surprised they did not use a KC-10 or one of the brand new KC-46 (767 based) tankers. The main deck is clear on the tankers and can be outfitted with seats. Or, they could simply have flown the C-17 which carries “only” about 134 but needs no special preparations. There is also the old KC-135R/T (CFM-56 re-engined 707), but there is no reason use them given the inferior cabin capacity and range.
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The US Air Force is sitting on 59 KC-10As, 18 KC-46s, 222 C-17s and 396 KC-135s. No need to charter and it is not like you are not paying the salaries of the Air Force Personnel flying and maintaining these planes anyway. The only marginal cost is the fuel and maybe some food.
I don’t see a problem here. Glad to see he Gov’t going with low cost bidder when handing out free flights.
Some people said they arranged the routing because the plane carried some medical supplies donated to China, anybody have an idea is that’s true?
The Brits flew back on a Wamos 747-400 with all its windows! Whilst the French flew back on Hi-Flys A380. Surely the US could have booked one of Atlas Airs regular passenger 747-400s?
NHRA Top Fuel dragster fans know that tail # N—CK stands for Connie Kalitta, freight airline founder and long time dragster competitor.
Are those larger seats functioning as premium classes? If that’s true that really is peak capitalism at work.
No IFE?? I would have asked to be re routed with a little DYKWIA
When I first saw the airline I was curious as to how they were using it for passengers. For years I worked for an airline at Louisville Kentucky and we normally saw that are on transporting race horses when the local tracks were open. So cattle car is a fairly apt description.
What I find very interesting is that this was permitted at all. Where are the provisions for oxygen masks? What about life rafts and lifejackets? And I believe there’s only one door for exiting the aircraft on the main deck, and from the pictures I saw it was not equipped with an evacuation slide. How is this even permitted?
When not operating Part 121 you can get pretty creative about meeting supplemental oxygen requirements. Combined with Altitude planning, there are aviation certified products (google Aviox Duo Pak) that are portable and can be loaded in a galley cart or other storage container as long as it’s in the cabin. They would be distributed by a crew member if supplemental Oxygen was required once the crew member was first on a POB (ships equipment). The US Military also regularly uses cargo planes in this manner. I work as a dispatcher and not a MX controller but I believe there would be some changes to MEL requirements (I.e. no packs deferred, etc).
Wow! Could they not have found a regular passenger jet for this flight??? Talk about uncomfortable! No windows, no downstairs washroom, no galleys, no decent in-cabin lighting, and certainly no emergency oxygen!!!!! Just a old cattle car in reality.
Not to mention that they didn’t even reinstall the piano bar. Talk about harsh…
Back seats are former Northwest Airlines
Not sure where the front half seats are from – they have PTV plastic on the seat backs
Pitch looks less than 32”
and no windows on the lower deck?
No windows, no hot meal, and no lavatories on the lower deck. Tough 15 hours.