It's been a while, yada yada.
Yesterday evening on my way home from work I looked into the sky and saw a big plane. It was big and low... (it wasn't just big because it was low, I'm aware of persepective!). On it's way to East Midlands I thought... but what on earth was it?
I counted 4 engines (which is quite unusual to see here) this narrows down the field somewhat... it was a lot easier to say what it wasn't... could it be a 747... this was easily discounted - totally the wrong shape... an A340 perhaps? Well... no... wrong shape again... they're quite slender and this plane was a right fat bastard. A380? Landing East Midlands Airport!? (yeah... I know one did a go around there in March 2007, but I don't see there being a reason for it to come buzz the area again... and at dusk?)
How about the Antonov An-124...? the crazy Russian/Ukrainian plane is a very likely candidate.
So... why's the Internet wonderful...
Well, after waiting the 24 hour delay period I was able to use the Webtrakwebsite to look at what plane was flying over me on my bike at about 6.15pm... (on the 22nd October 2008 - yeah I know at the top of the post I said yesterday... but it's gone midnight whilst writing...)
Anyways, this website shows that it was flight POT1019, a Polet Antonov An-124, flying from Ulyanovsk to East Midlands Airport.
Interestingly, remember I said the plane was a fat 'un... here's a photo of an An-124 eating a section of A380 fuselage. It is indeed a really fat plane.
I'd hazard a guess that it was coming here to pick up jet engines from Rolls-Royce. The clever thing to do would be to watch the WebTrak page and wait until it takes off again to see where it's heading next... Toulouse perharps? But the WebTrak page has broken itself now... grrrr. Maybe I'll update in the comments... or maybe someone else will do the hard work for me and comment.... (hint hint)... :)
