July 29 - Gebr
The 13 m unit was loaded on board the world's second largest cargo plane at Zurich International airport, using a mobile crane and a heavy-duty loading ramp. In order to lift the tank from a flatbed truck onto the ramp, the crane was loaded with an additional 50-tonnes of counterweight.
Once the tank had been safely loaded onto the ramp, it was pulled into the plane's cargo hold with the help of a chain/cable haul.
"For such operations, all steps need to be precisely planned down to the last detail in advance," explained Franco Ravazzolo, Gebrüder Weiss, Air & Sea, project logistics and break bulk.
The steel tank was delivered to Zurich airport from the Italian commune of Suisio, 35 km northeast of Milan, using an eight-axle flatbed truck. To minimise traffic disruption the majority of the transport was conducted at night and a police escort accompanied the truck along the entire route.
