Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Posted (8 years 3 weeks 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 3748 times:
Just flew ORD to LGA this evening on AA...
I spotted an unusual plane at the tarmac at the end of the International Concourse -- an All Nippon Boeing 747-400 JA404A parked there with a staircase attached to it, as well as some refueling trucks.
My guess (without doing any search -- just arrived home literally) was that something went wrong on the JFK-NRT flight, which required a stop at ORD. The plane was just going to get refuelled and then continued onto NRT. Possibly a medical emergency, since there are no mechanics around. Or this is just a charter flight.
LOT767-300ER From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (8 years 3 weeks 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 3716 times:
Todays Schedules...
Allentown, PA Air Wisconsin 803 10:21 AM Scheduled
Anchorage, AK Alaska 130 06:34 AM Arrived
Seattle, WA Alaska 20 02:35 PM Arrived
Seattle, WA Alaska 28 05:23 PM Arrived
Seattle, WA Alaska 22 06:12 PM Arrived
Milan Alitalia 62M 01:36 PM Arrived
Milan Alitalia 626 01:47 PM Scheduled Tokyo All Nippon Airways 1962 10:10 AM Arrived
Las Vegas, NV America West 728 04:26 AM Arrived
Phoenix, AZ America West 1 12:43 PM Arrived
Phoenix, AZ America West 3 01:58 PM Arrived
Airfinair From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 650 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 3366 times:
Carfield - are you sure that it was a 744 ANA? I just drove by ORD and saw two Nippon Cargo 742's parked at the east end apron near the International terminal. While this is a very unusual place to park two NCA 742's, I am 100% sure they were not ANA birds and not 744's. Maybe they ran out of room by the south cargo area to park them. I will try to get over there for lunch to get some reg's.
Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Reply 8, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 3272 times:
Yes, I am sure it is a Boeing 747-400 all passenger... I also got the registration number... JA404A... It is also parked next to the International concourse, instead of the cargo area.
I totally forget about the Golden week in Japan... wow, NH must be supplementing UA on this popular ORD-NRT service.
FriendlySkies From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 4009 posts, RR: 6 Reply 9, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 3271 times:
ANA has no reason to start their own service to ORD, as UA has more than enough flights to satisfy the market.
Jacobin777 From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 14968 posts, RR: 61 Reply 10, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 3261 times:
AV8FAN From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3202 times:
To answer all of the questions in this thread.
1) The ANA 747-400 was here in ORD as a charter for the Indy Racing League (IRL). IRL chartered this plane to transport all the drivers,crew and family to Tokyo for the IRL race at Motegi race track. The plane that you saw on the ground at the end of T5 was the return leg. It was parked there for a while for crew rest. Same crew that brought this plane in was to fly it out.
2) As far as the 2 NCA planes parked at the end of T5. These alse were charted by IRL. We flew to chartered 747's from IND to NRT last week and these two planes are the return chartered planes. Planes flew to IND to offload all cars,tires and rest of cargo and ferried to ORD. One plane will depart ORD on Wednesday night and the other on Thursday night.
These planes had nothing to do with golden week or any other matters. As fas as I know, NH does not plan to fly to ORD no earlier than summer/fall 2006.
Airfinair From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 650 posts, RR: 2 Reply 12, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3183 times:
Here's the ANA departure out of ORD, verifying it was a charter:
Aircraft ID ANA9409
Aircraft Type B744
Owner/Operator All Nippon Airways Co Ltd
Flight Plan Received 2005-05-02 12:14:05 from Chicago
Departure KORD CHICAGO, CHICAGO-O'HARE INTERNATIONAL AIRP, UNITED STATES
Destination RJAA NEW TOKYO INTER-NATIONAL AIRPORT, JAPAN
Status Landed
Planned Alt 34000 Feet
Planned Speed 486 kts.
Planned Dep 2005-05-02 22:30
Actual Dep 2005-05-02 22:52
Planned Arrival 2005-05-03 10:31
Estimated Arrival 2005-05-03 10:53
Actual Arrival 2005-05-03 07:48
Latest Speed 510 kts.
Latest Altitude 36000 Feet
I did get over to ORD for lunch, and the NCA 742's (or 74R's?) are still over there. Couldn't catch regs - too far away for my binoculars. It is a rare occurance to have two 747's parked at the east end of the International Terminal. Often we'll see an Apple Vacations 752, A Sprit MD-80 or a Jet America 721 parked there. But right now its full with the two NCA 742's. Again, I have never seen them park large cargo aircraft there as it is not really a "cargo" apron. Usually they park the NCA jets over at the south cargo terminal. Must have them there to get them out of the way of south cargo ops.
AV8FAN From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3170 times:
The planes were put there because they are to stay here for a couple of days. Ramp space there was a bit less expensive and would not interfere with any other flight operations at the south cargo terminal. The registrations numbers are JA8167 and JA8168 for those of you who are interested. Both planes are pure freighters (nose door) B747-200F.
Av8fan From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 3066 times:
Airfinair, Okay, I admit, I have an advantage over a lot of people. I work for KZ (Nippon Cargo Airlines) at ORD. If you have any other questions, I'll try my best to answer them. Thanks for the welcome. Have been debating for a while whether or not to join but this topic clinched it.
Airfinair From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 650 posts, RR: 2 Reply 16, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 3005 times:
Its always nice to have another "insider" at ORD that may have better insight than most of us who are just wishing we could be on the other side of that 14' tall razor-wire fence.
I do have a question for you about KZ: Often times when I'm listening in on my scanner I hear either captain or f/o speaking with an American accent. What percentage of your pilots are American? How about Japanese? Any other nationalities? I seem to remeber a time not too long ago that most KZ pilots had an Asian accent. It made sense - a Japanese airline, a Japanese crew. Now, are the American pilots used mainly on routes in North America? No reason to ask the question other than curiosity.
Wait, one more question: I'm not sure what you do exactly for KZ, but I hope you can answer this one - What is the strangest thing you have seen or heard of coming into ORD on one of your flights?
LOT767-300ER From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2934 times:
Quoting FriendlySkies (Reply 9): ANA has no reason to start their own service to ORD, as UA has more than enough flights to satisfy the market.
More like, come back. ANA went bye bye after the 9/11 cutbacks which took VS, Aeroflot, Sabena etc.
Quoting Airfinair (Reply 12): It is a rare occurance to have two 747's parked at the east end of the International Terminal. Often we'll see an Apple Vacations 752, A Sprit MD-80 or a Jet America 721
Ive seen 747s parked there a couple times, back in the day when ABX still had their cargo center there they had at least 3 DC-8-70s out there. Nowadays except for the charter stuff, theres been times when you see BD A332, or a JAL744 parked there between flights.
AV8FAN From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2908 times:
Airfinair,
The pilots that fly for us are mostly Canadian, S. African and European. There are some Americans. Most of, if not all of these pilots are subcontracted pilots through a company that provides pilots to airlines. Although these pilots do not work for us directly, they are interviewed at time of placement with us and trained by us in Tokyo. In addition and this might seem strange, the Japanese crew members either work for NCA directly or they are former ANA pilots that have been assigned to KZ. NH is slowly retiring their 747-200 so instead of letting them go they just get assigned to fly KZ. Mostly the Japanese crew members fly our intra-Asia flight. Occasionally they fly through other parts of our network, including ORD when fulfilling their requirement to fly to eah station of ours at least twice a year. As far as the percentages of pilots, my best guess, system wide we have 60% western crew and 40% Japanese crew. Just a guess, since I do not work in the flight operations department.
As far as the strangest things I've seen come through our warehouse, I'll list a few:
1) F1 Ferraris belonging to Michael Schumacher, Barichello and the back up car with spare parts on the way to Tokyo for the Japanese Grand Prix. Cars were trucked from IND after they both came in 1st and 2nd in the US Grand Prix a couple of years ago. That was cool to handle these cars the day after they won the race.
2) I once was asked to be a cargo attendant for a shipment of bulls that were headed to NRT. That was interesting. Flew 18hrs there with the bulls arriving in the early morning. Spent the whole day in Narita and flew back the same night. That was very tiring but it was lots of fun.
3) Other interesting items include 500 inch long telescopes. Once we transported a humungus Christmas tree that was loaded through the nose of the aircraft. The final destination of this tree was BKK.
4) Finally we recently have been transporting GE engines to NRT for NH 777's. These engines are manufactured in Ohio, I think Cincinnati or somewhere close and trucked to ORD. Handling these big engines is a chore. Maybe once I learn how to post pictures along with my replies I will show you how they are loaded.
If I think of anything else, I'll just add it later. Hope this is what you were looking for.
Airfinair From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 650 posts, RR: 2 Reply 19, posted (8 years 3 weeks 2 days ago) and read 2857 times:
AV8FAN - Thanks. Very interesting pilot info.
So is KZ planning on using the 742's for a while? Any plans to operate 744F's?
And, yes, GE-90's are manufactured just outside of Cincinnati in Evendale, OH. I'd love to see pics of them being loaded.
Again, thanks for the info. It would be great if you could give us ORD spotters a heads-up next time something unusual is coming into town that you know of - an NH 744 or 777! We miss seeing them around here!
AV8FAN From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (8 years 3 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2809 times:
AIRFINAIR,
We are getting our first of 4 B747-400F in June. The second will come in September/October. The third some time early next year and I'm not sure when the last one will come from Boeing. We also ordered some B74-400SF (Convereted Freighters). These will arrive in the next year or two. Once these get into the fleet, I believe we'll be retiring or older B747's. First one on the hit list is JA8158.
AV8FAN From Italy, joined May 2005, 16 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (8 years 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2769 times:
AIRFINAIR,
Will let you know once I get wind of the planned first flight to ORD. Might be a while since we are planning on using the firts couple of 400's on our NRT/OSA to Europe routes. Will keep you posted.
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