Possibly Shortest 747 Flight Ever 14 Minutes

Gazdon121 · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:37 pm

BA G-BNLX made its final flight today from Cardiff to RAF Saint Athen which was a 14 minute flight.
I don't know of any flight for a 747 being this short hopefully someone might know of another

http://www.thebasource.com/withdrawn...747-400-g-bnlx-makes-final-flight/

regards

RWA380 · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:41 pm

UA would routinely fly 747's between SFO & OAK, as OAK had a UA 747 maintenance facility in the 70's & 80's. 10 minutes wasn't uncommon, you could see them lift off from Oakland & fly across the bay to SFO.

SpaceshipDC10 · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:41 pm

Quoting Gazdon121 (Thread starter):
hopefully someone might know of another

Perhaps between Kinshasa and Brazzaville when the 747 was more common?

777Jet · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:45 pm

Quoting Gazdon121 (Thread starter):
BA G-BNLX made its final flight today from Cardiff to RAF Saint Athen which was a 14 minute flight.

I believe the final flight for VH-OJA from Sydney to Albion Park was just 13 minutes (predicted to be 15 mins before the flight).

[Edited 2016-02-11 15:47:38]

CX Flyboy · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:47 pm

We have commercial flights divert from HKG to Macau next door and because of different runway alignments and terrain bad wind shear can exist in HKG but not at MFM. The usual runway usage is 07 in HKG and 34 at MFM. This means that after diversion the flight back to HKG can be as short as 6-7 mins and I have had colleagues which have flown flights that short on Cathay planes. Unfortunately I do not know of any specific 747 cases but I've spoken to friends who have flown diverted A330s and 777s on flights that short and I know we do have 747s divert there so I imagine that the 747 has had those short flights too, not to mention the other airlines who also divert there.

Ytraveller · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:50 pm

BA was sending this plane frequently to LAS (I think it has the old first class). I flew on it LHR-LAS in April 2015. Sad to see it go.

Viscount724 · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:59 pm

Quoting SpaceshipDC10 (Reply 2):
Quoting Gazdon121 (Thread starter):
hopefully someone might know of another

Perhaps between Kinshasa and Brazzaville when the 747 was more common?

BZV-FIH is 14 nm, a little further than the 10 nm SFO-OAK. Current 737 block time BZV-FIH is 30 minutes but obviously the aircraft isn't in the air that long.

In 1974 schedules when there were 5 daily jets SFO-OAK (4 UA, 3 727s and 1 737) and one TWA 707, block times (gate to gate) varied from 18 to 21 minutes.

BoeingGuy · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:02 am

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 6):
In 1974 schedules when there were 5 daily jets SFO-OAK (4 UA, 3 727s and 1 737) and one TWA 707, block times (gate to gate) varied from 18 to 21 minutes.

I image SJC-SFO, which has also been scheduled as tag-ons in the past would be at least as fast under common conditions when they'd take off on the 30s at SJC and land on the 28s at SFO. That's a straight shot of about 30 miles.

DeltaB717 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:08 am

Quoting 777Jet (Reply 3):
Quoting Gazdon121 (Thread starter):BA G-BNLX made its final flight today from Cardiff to RAF Saint Athen which was a 14 minute flight.
I believe the final flight for VH-OJA from Sydney to Albion Park was just 13 minutes (predicted to be 15 mins before the flight).

OJA was actually only 12 mins

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHOJA

777Jet · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:15 am

Quoting DeltaB717 (Reply 8):
OJA was actually only 12 mins http://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHOJA

Even better!

Confuscius · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:29 am

I think the shortest distance 747 flights are the B# and C# flights because they takeoff and land in the same airport.

[Edited 2016-02-11 16:30:55]

BoeingVista · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:38 am

BA and Virgin do placement flights between LHR-LGW quite often with 747's I believe or at least they used to.

DAL763ER · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:46 am

Quoting BoeingVista (Reply 11):
BA and Virgin do placement flights between LHR-LGW quite often with 747's I believe or at least they used to.

BA nope. They haven't had 747s at LGW for a while. They do, on the other hand, do repositioning LHR-LGW on 777s and 320s. A BA pilot I follow on Twitter did a LGW-LHR repositioning flight in 12 minutes.

Virgin doesn't have 747s at LHR any more, so that's also never going to happen again I'm afraid.

Norcal773 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:52 am

Quoting BoeingGuy (Reply 7):
I image SJC-SFO, which has also been scheduled as tag-ons in the past would be at least as fast under common conditions when they'd take off on the 30s at SJC and land on the 28s at SFO. That's a straight shot of about 30 miles.

I was watching flight radar this past Monday and they had a 744 fly SFO-SJC but not sure how long it took. Flew at 5000 Feet and at first I thought it was a charter for the Denver Broncos but then I saw the UA 764 take off SJC headed for DEN around the time the 744 landed.

Viscount724 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:04 am

During the 22 years (1975-97) when international flights from Montreal were forced to use Mirabel airport (YMX), I wouldn't be surprised if AC occasionally had to ferry a 747 or L-1011 the 17 nm between YUL and YMX since their maintenance base is at YUL.

BoeingGuy · Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:43 am

Quoting Confuscius (Reply 10):
I think the shortest distance 747 flights are the B# and C# flights because they takeoff and land in the same airport.

I think we are talking about units of time.

I assume you are referring to Boeing B1 or C1 flights that takeoff and land at PAE, which spend several hours in the air incidentally and can cover a lot of distance all the way from the Olympic Peninsula to Eastern Washington and maybe father.

Bx or Cx flights are hardly short in either flying distance or time.

[Edited 2016-02-11 17:44:32]

crownvic · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:04 am

National Cargo recently repositioned a 747 from Sanford SFB to Orlando MCO..According to Flightaware it was a 12 minute flight..20 miles total..It was done in the wee hours of the night so no traffic and direct point to point.

BoeingVista · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:44 am

Quoting DAL763ER (Reply 12):

BA nope. They haven't had 747s at LGW for a while. They do, on the other hand, do repositioning LHR-LGW on 777s and 320s. A BA pilot I follow on Twitter did a LGW-LHR repositioning flight in 12 minutes.

I don't know why you say nope as they clearly used to do these flights and I imagine still would do if the need for a LGW 747 charter arose.

777Jet · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:59 am

Quoting Norcal773 (Reply 13):
I was watching flight radar this past Monday and they had a 744 fly SFO-SJC but not sure how long it took. Flew at 5000 Feet and at first I thought it was a charter for the Denver Broncos but then I saw the UA 764 take off SJC headed for DEN around the time the 744 landed.

The Broncos chartered a 744 for the family and friends of the Broncos.

Could it have been that?

nomadd22 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:19 am

Quoting SpaceshipDC10 (Reply 2):
Perhaps between Kinshasa and Brazzaville when the 747 was more common?

One of my best photos was one of those next to a DC-3 in 92, right after Kinshasa opened up again after the revolution of the month.

7BOEING7 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:28 am

Quoting BoeingGuy (Reply 15):
Bx or Cx flights are hardly short in either flying distance or time

Best I've done was when my copilot called "Engine fire #4" on rotation on a B-1 (BA/G-BNLF) out of KPAE -- 0:25 Block/0:06 Flight -- immediate right turn into the visual pattern, shut the engine down, left the gear down and flaps 20 until short final when the flaps went to 30. No fire, just a false alarm. Empty 47's are a hoot except they still handle like "18 wheelers".

AVFCdownunder · Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:42 am

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 6):
In 1974 schedules when there were 5 daily jets SFO-OAK (4 UA, 3 727s and 1 737) and one TWA 707, block times (gate to gate) varied from 18 to 21 minutes.

You're kidding?? What would be the point of that? I can only presume the bridge linking the two areas wasn't built in 1974?

Viscount724 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:14 am

Quoting AVFCdownunder (Reply 21):
Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 6):
In 1974 schedules when there were 5 daily jets SFO-OAK (4 UA, 3 727s and 1 737) and one TWA 707, block times (gate to gate) varied from 18 to 21 minutes.

You're kidding?? What would be the point of that? I can only presume the bridge linking the two areas wasn't built in 1974?

There were a few SFO-OAK-SFO flights for many years, all the way up to DC-8s and 707s. They were essentially positioning flights but were sold as regular flights. Probably very flew local passengers. Mostly UA, probably mainly due to their major maintenance base in SFO but they also had some flights to/from OAK so the last sector was sometimes OAK-SFO and the first sector SFO-OAK.

BoeingGuy · Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:31 am

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 22):
There were a few SFO-OAK-SFO flights for many years, all the way up to DC-8s and 707s. They were essentially positioning flights but were sold as regular flights. Probably very flew local passengers. Mostly UA, probably mainly due to their major maintenance base in SFO but they also had some flights to/from OAK so the last sector was sometimes OAK-SFO and the first sector SFO-OAK.

They were also Tag-On flights. Air California did SFO-OAK-TVL, for example. I think UA did them as Tag-Ons too.

In more recent times, TWA did a Saturday STL-SFO-SJC.

WA did HNL-OAK-SJC and HNL-SJC-OAK flights in the 1970s.

Viper911 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:45 am

I don't know in minutes but ZS-SPC SAA'a 747SP was flown from JNB to it's final resting place at QRA, a total distance of 9nm. Although the flight took more than 14 minutes as the airplane made several test approaches before landing.

Viper911.

jetjeanes · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:11 am

paying pax flight shortest was oak to sfo ...it was even listed
in the oag

Max Q · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:26 am

I ferried a few B727's from Continental's maintenance base at Houston's Hobby airport to the Houston intercontinental airport.

Twenty four miles non stop, pretty quick !

Aircellist · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:41 am

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 14):
During the 22 years (1975-97) when international flights from Montreal were forced to use Mirabel airport (YMX), I wouldn't be surprised if AC occasionally had to ferry a 747 or L-1011 the 17 nm between YUL and YMX since their maintenance base is at YUL.

I guess that's what I've witnessed once: I saw an AC 747 take-off from the transversal runway. At the time, it was still possible to watch the action from the big windows in YUL. The plane was off the ground by the middle of the terminal, and climbing fast. The hottest 747 take-off I've seen.

RWA380 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:57 am

Quoting AVFCdownunder (Reply 21):
You're kidding?? What would be the point of that? I can only presume the bridge linking the two areas wasn't built in 1974?

Not at all, it was very common in the 70's for an airline to fly JFK-SFO-OAK or HNL-SFO-OAK. flights existed between all three bay area airports non-stop, often times as part of a west coast milk run route. SFO-SJC, SFO-OAK, OAK-SJC all have had scheduled jet services at one time or another

In the LA area, it was common for BUR-ONT, ONT-LGB, LAX-SNA, BUR-LGB, have seen jets as well, always as a part of a triangle routing like AS would fly, PDX-ONT-BUR-PDX or SEA-LGB-ONT-SEA.

Quoting jetjeanes (Reply 25):
paying pax flight shortest was oak to sfo ...it was even listed
in the oag

Agreed, it's a real short flight & I've watched it from wheels up to wheels down cross the bay, neat sight a big plane flying so low.

BoeingVista · Fri Feb 12, 2016 7:16 am

We are forgetting the Dreamlifter (still a 747) incident when it landed at the wrong airport, KAAO instead of IAB, it needed a 9 mile relocation between airports, must have gotten lost again though as the flight took 19 minutes.

PatrickZ80 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 7:26 am

Quoting CX Flyboy (Reply 4):
We have commercial flights divert from HKG to Macau next door and because of different runway alignments and terrain bad wind shear can exist in HKG but not at MFM. The usual runway usage is 07 in HKG and 34 at MFM. This means that after diversion the flight back to HKG can be as short as 6-7 mins and I have had colleagues which have flown flights that short on Cathay planes. Unfortunately I do not know of any specific 747 cases but I've spoken to friends who have flown diverted A330s and 777s on flights that short and I know we do have 747s divert there so I imagine that the 747 has had those short flights too, not to mention the other airlines who also divert there.

Same thing happens over here sometimes. I've seen 747's at RTM that diverted there because for some reason they couldn't land at AMS. From RTM to AMS is also a very short hop. Quite a sight to see a big 747 at a small airport like RTM.

Skyeurope · Fri Feb 12, 2016 8:28 am

Iran Air routinely ferries their 747s between THR and IKA for maintenance, 18nm.

panamascot · Fri Feb 12, 2016 8:33 am

Remember flying Edinburgh - Shannon Aer Lingus in the late 80's. Flight was a shorts 360 Edinburgh-Dublin and then 747 for the 20 minute hop to Shannon. The 747 was the performing the Boston route, but at that time had to rote via Shannon as per the Irish - US gateway set up. Unfortunately my luggage was put into the wrong part of the hold and did the transatlantic trip, while I carried on working in Shannon !

Loadsheet · Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:01 am

I do think a ferry flight in Korean Air GMP-ICN dep RWY 32R to 33R must be the shortest flight ..... i remember once calculated time 8min!

AAMDanny · Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:11 am

VS have had many ferry flights LHR-LGW or LGW-LHR! I suppose anything is quicker than the M25!

vv701 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 11:37 am

Quoting BoeingVista (Reply 11):
BA and Virgin do placement flights between LHR-LGW quite often with 747's I believe or at least they used to.

Quoting DAL763ER (Reply 12):
BA nope. They haven't had 747s at LGW for a while

The last time BA ferried a 744 from LHR to LGW was on 27 May 2004. The aircraft concerned was G-CIVM. On arrival it was taxied under the then new Pier B bridge spanning Taxiway Lima at the bridge's formal inauguration. The clearance above the tail fin was 2.5 m.

Immediately after this publicity stunt 'VM was ferried back to LHR and returned to commercial operations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...way-is-a-bridge-to-the-future.html

Gazdon121 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 11:45 am

Quoting VV701 (Reply 35):

i have crossed that bridge many times, that made a nice little read thank you

timpdx · Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:44 pm

During "Carmageddon" when the 405 freeway in LA was closed over a weekend, B6 offered bookabable LGB-BUR flights (and vice versa). The flights very quickly sold out, I heard about it too late to snag a seat.

airtran737 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:01 pm

You can see SUU-MCC quite often when a CRAF carrier can't get extended parking granted in SUU. It's usually a 10 minute VFR flight.

United_fan · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:04 pm

Didn't UA used fly SAN-LAX enroute to HNL ?

bmacleod · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:21 pm

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 14):

During the 22 years (1975-97) when international flights from Montreal were forced to use Mirabel airport (YMX), I wouldn't be surprised if AC occasionally had to ferry a 747 or L-1011 the 17 nm between YUL and YMX since their maintenance base is at YUL.

For a short period from 1997-1998 AC 888 used a 744; it started in YOW, then stopped over in YUL to pick up more passengers. Both the 744 and the YUL stopover were discontinued.

Something like AC 860 YHZ-YYT-LHR. (YYT stopover was dropped).

It's around 40 minutes flight time between YOW and YUL.

Anyone know if a AC 747 ever had to make emergency landing in YHM (Hamilton)? That would have been a short flight to YYZ.

[Edited 2016-02-12 07:11:51]

sspontak · Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:21 pm

The shortest 747 flight I was on was on TWA in the early 1980's. The flight was from BOS to JFK. I remember them saying the flight continued on to Rome. It was not a full flight. The FA were able to do a full beverage service.

BoeingVista · Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:18 pm

Quoting VV701 (Reply 35):
The last time BA ferried a 744 from LHR to LGW was on 27 May 2004. The aircraft concerned was G-CIVM. On arrival it was taxied under the then new Pier B bridge spanning Taxiway Lima at the bridge's formal inauguration. The clearance above the tail fin was 2.5 m.

BA Source suggests that G-CIVY DME-LHR diverted to LGW on 12/07/2013 due to the Ethopian 787 fire which closed LHR. The next day it operated LHR-GRU so presumably is was positioned LGW-LHR.

http://www.thebasource.com/british-a...vy-ba232-london-gatwick-diversion/

B737900 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:44 pm

Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 22):
Quoting AVFCdownunder (Reply 21):Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 6):
In 1974 schedules when there were 5 daily jets SFO-OAK (4 UA, 3 727s and 1 737) and one TWA 707, block times (gate to gate) varied from 18 to 21 minutes.

You're kidding?? What would be the point of that? I can only presume the bridge linking the two areas wasn't built in 1974?
There were a few SFO-OAK-SFO flights for many years, all the way up to DC-8s and 707s. They were essentially positioning flights but were sold as regular flights. Probably very flew local passengers. Mostly UA, probably mainly due to their major maintenance base in SFO but they also had some flights to/from OAK so the last sector was sometimes OAK-SFO and the first sector SFO-OAK.

Way back in 1968 I was in the U.S. Navy. I was in SFO and had to get to San Diego. Forget what airline I flew but we went SFO-OAK. People got on and people got off at OAK. We then continued on to San Diego. The flight was a very late red eye departure. It wasn't a 747. I'm thinking it was an Air Cal or PSA 727.

[Edited 2016-02-12 07:46:23]

lapa_saab340 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:27 pm

Most recently, Air France flew a 747 from CDG to LBG for an open house display. The fields are only about 4-5nm from each other.

topbanana · Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:28 pm

Quoting AVFCdownunder (Reply 21):
You're kidding??

Not kidding at all....

http://www.departedflights.com/SFO74p3.html

tonystan · Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:04 pm

Quoting VV701 (Reply 35):
he last time BA ferried a 744 from LHR to LGW was on 27 May 2004. T

Not entirely true. In 2005 there was a sports charter (I want to say it was for cricket but can't be entirely sure as it may have been rugby also) to Barbados using a 744. I remember as my own 744 licence in LGW had just expired and I thought I was seeing things when I was coached past it until I was advised a crew from LHR had been brought down for it.

flylku · Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:28 pm

Quoting RWA380,reply=:

UA would routinely fly 747's between SFO & OAK, as OAK had a UA 747 maintenance facility in the 70's & 80's. 10 minutes wasn't uncommon, you could see them lift off from Oakland & fly across the bay to SFO.

Did they even raise the gear?

turk223 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:38 pm

In terms of regularly scheduled flights, BA had a 747 going from BGI to UVF and return... way back in the day.

RoyalOrchid773 · Fri Feb 12, 2016 7:47 pm

How about TG flying their 744s from BKK to DMK for maintenance? Must be one of the shortest 747 flights too, IMHO.

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