TUDM (RMAF in English) has successfully landed their big four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft Airbus A400M Atlas in a post-earthquake Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport, Palu.
The original plan given by Indonesian authority was for RMAF to carry cargo from the Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base in Jakarta to Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport in Balikpapan, Kalimantan. But since A400M owned by RMAF is an awesome transport aircraft, airforce pilots lobbying to land directly into post-earthquake Palu.
This is not normal occurrence for such big RMAF A400M transport aircraft since it must land on earthquake-damage airport runaway, 2000m runaway left from 2500m long before, with limited airport facilities to facilitate such short landing, and guided only by a temporary Palu airport control tower.
Also this time RMAF A400M carrying among the heaviest loads and tons of other disaster relief inventories.
Oct 7th trip: 17 tonnes oil tanker.
Oct 9th trip: 22 tonnes excavator, heaviest load ever flown by RMAF aircraft.
Only eight countries in the world currently operating this huge future large aircraft, with Malaysia with four A400M-s being the first in Southeast Asia region, the only non-European/ non-Nato to has this.
Photos credit: PR TUDM.
Play video below to see how RMAF crew load the heavy excavator into A400M, flown it and directly landed into earthquake-damaged airport in Palu.
The original plan given by Indonesian authority was for RMAF to carry cargo from the Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base in Jakarta to Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport in Balikpapan, Kalimantan. But since A400M owned by RMAF is an awesome transport aircraft, airforce pilots lobbying to land directly into post-earthquake Palu.
This is not normal occurrence for such big RMAF A400M transport aircraft since it must land on earthquake-damage airport runaway, 2000m runaway left from 2500m long before, with limited airport facilities to facilitate such short landing, and guided only by a temporary Palu airport control tower.
Also this time RMAF A400M carrying among the heaviest loads and tons of other disaster relief inventories.
Oct 7th trip: 17 tonnes oil tanker.
Oct 9th trip: 22 tonnes excavator, heaviest load ever flown by RMAF aircraft.
Only eight countries in the world currently operating this huge future large aircraft, with Malaysia with four A400M-s being the first in Southeast Asia region, the only non-European/ non-Nato to has this.
Photos credit: PR TUDM.
Play video below to see how RMAF crew load the heavy excavator into A400M, flown it and directly landed into earthquake-damaged airport in Palu.
