June 30 - Volga-Dnepr Airlines has flown a 25-tonne cable spool from Maastricht, the Netherlands to Varna in Bulgaria, to replace failed equipment on the drilling vessel, Noble Globetrotter II.
Delivering the spool on one of Volga-Dnepr's IL-76TD-90VD aircraft required a bespoke engineering solution and involved special tooling manufactured in the Netherlands, explained the airline.
Additional loading equipment, along with a relief flight crew, was brought to Maastricht by another IL-76TD-90VD freighter the day before, which Volga-Dnepr said helped to expedite the contracted flight without delay.
"The customer's prime objective was to deliver the cargo before the ship's scheduled exit from the Black Sea Port of Varna," explained Volga-Dnepr Airlines sales executive, Rinat Akhmetov.
"Working within this tight timeframe, we managed to order a crane to load the cargo in Maastricht, obtain a Dutch flight permit in three hours instead of the standard three days and, despite it being a weekend, promptly arrange the necessary papers to fly into Bulgaria."
The urgent flight to Bulgaria was chartered by Crane Worldwide Logistics.
