January 23 - Chapman Freeborn Australia has transported a 140-tonne turbo-shaft gas turbine a total of 18,606 km from Wilmington, USA to Karratha in Western Australia.
A turbine failure at an industrial facility off Australia's North West Shelf meant that the plant was risking shutdown, so Chapman Freeborn's Melbourne team arranged for the urgent air transportation of a replacement part.
The turbine was loaded through the rear side door of a chartered Boeing B747-400F freighter and flown a distance of 14,800 km via Los Angeles to Brisbane.
The outsize cargo was then transferred to a chartered Hercules aircraft for the onward flight via Alice Springs to Karratha and offloaded with the assistance of a mobile crane, special loading ramp and onboard winches.
