Antonov arrival

Today's post is unusual in that it's rare that I get to show you photos the same day that they were taken. But it's also rare that we have an Antonov 124 arrive on the north complex. However we had one this evening, and here it is.

Under most circumstances, the airport will coordinate with the tower that they are expecting an AN-124 arrival, and the tower will in turn coordinate with the radar arrival sectors to set the aircraft up to land on Runway 25 Left. That's because the Antonov is almost always parked on the Imperial Terminal ramp, adjacent to the Flight Path Museum on the south side of the airport. Runway 25 Left is the nearest runway to that ramp, and getting to that ramp after arriving on Runway 25 Left is about as easy as anything gets at LAX.

Today's Antonov arrival was, as usual, destined to park on the far south side of the airport. But for whatever reason, it showed up on final for Runway 24 Right.

As you can see in these last couple of shots, this was fairly late in the afternoon and the angle of the sun played havoc with the camera shooting through the tower windows. Nonetheless, this seemed worthy of sharing.

 

Shots of the day: Antonov departure

 

 

New box hauler

LAX has seen the addition of a handful of new cargo operators this year. This happens to be one of them. Qatar Cargo (callsign: Qatari) passes through LAX while on the way between Liege, Belgium, and Mexico City.

 

Shot of the day: Load it up!

We see Antonov An-124s occasionally; I caught this one early one morning with both ends opened up for loading. On the topic of freighters, here are a few more:

Lufthansa Cargo has brought MD-11s into LAX for quite some time; this is one of the first of their B777s to be seen here  (thanks to TB for this shot)

Cathay Pacific brings both B747-400s and -800s into LAX; this is an -800. The longer -800 can be distinguished by the lack of winglets as well as the larger engine cowlings; compare to the Air China -400 seen below:

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that while this Air China B747-400 is marked Cargo, it did not begin life as an all-cargo aircraft. The long hump on the fuselage marks a passenger model; compare to the Cathay cargo -800 above.