A flight to forget
Oh what a flight
Okuk's Last Flight
B707 Anecdotes
B707 Introduction
A Biblical Story
A Biblical Story 2
A Biblical Story 3
Forbidden Fruits
Joe's Jolly (Poem)
The Golfer
Suitably Restrained
PX Advertisment 1
PX Advertisment 2
PX Advertisment 3
PX Article 1
PX Article 2
PX Article 3
The Check Ride
First and Last Flt.
First Command
DC3 KOK - POM
The Holiday
Friends at Last
History of P2ANQ
Ferry Flight
Crayfish
FO Cassanova
Larry Blackman
Secret Revealed
Airbus A300
Cargo Capers
Doing it Differently
Side Slip
Larry Blackman
4th Floor Memo
International Arsonist
Office Works
Thru Eyes of a Hostie
Airline Anecdotes
CARGO CAPERS Posted by Randal Lockie
Do you remember when ......
................the staff morning cup of coffee tasted very fishy ~ further investigations discovered that the night shift had been helping themselves to some of the Daru Crayfish in the freezer and boiling them up in the large hot water urn that we had in the cargo department ~( you could take off the lid of the urn to fill it up.)
Worse was to come however ........
................ discovered very early one morning that the staff member who was mopping out the toilets in the cargo department was also filling the hot water urn from the same mopping out bucket !!!! ~ its a wonder we all survived !!
.............. a wild PNG dog was repatriated from Taronga Park Zoo and having been brought up to the terminal from the tarmac a cargo staff member opened the cage to give the "wild dog " a fresh drink of water. The dog seized this opportunity and made good its escape, crossing the runway and running amok around the WW2 revetments on the far side of the strip. After a good search there was no sign of the wild dog and local Port Moresby authorities were very concerned that the wild dog would interbreed with the Port Moresby 'specials' and produce a very fiercesome new breed ~ 36 hours after the escape however one of the 'Eagle' eyed cargo staff spotted a dark fleck moving at pace over the far side of the airstrip. Cargo staff jumped aboard 3 or 4 tarmac tugs and gave chase. Civil Aviation were alerted to the problem when they noticed the tarmac tugs bounding across the runway and they also gave pursuit in their 4 wheel drive vehicle, complete with a scoped rifle used to shoot any strays on the airfield. The rifle was surplus to requirements however as the wild dog came very mildly into the custody of one of the cargo staff and the latest PX crisis was finally over. I recall as a reward the 5 cargo staff who finally caught the dog were each rewarded with K2.00 out of our Coke machine profits!
.............. a large crocodile escaped from the croc farm, situated beyond the airstrip back markers, and decided the tarmac on the end of the runway was a perfect place to catch a good suntan ~ again flights were delayed until the crocodile was recaptured and removed back to the farm ( not by PX staff either ).
.............. PX traffic had a large and willing Australian expatriate that we in cargo fondly called " Clancy of the overload " for obvious reasons !
..............going around the tarmac surrounding the cargo terminal, first thing in the morning ,banging on the sides of the aluminium cargo containers ( ULDs) to wake up any staff that had taken up residence and were asleep in the containers.
............... a CX 'undercover' Dangerous goods inspector arrived at the terminal cargo check in point unannounced and presented staff with a flimsy cardboard box which he said contained Gallium ( Class 8 / UN ID 2803) and wanted it shipped aboard the CX PAX flight. The product was not recognised by the receiving staff member as a nasty corrosive requiring specialist packaging and DG documentation and as consequence PX was disallowed to load cargo on the CX services for some time!
................ Do you remember when it was discovered that catering had been delivering 102 staff meals a week to the cargo department when in fact the flight schedules had long since changed but catering had not been notified, and there was no staff rostered on to eat them ~ the mystery as to who had eaten these meals remains to this day !!
............... When the following message was received from the PX Rabaul office after they had been sent an engraved plaque to attach to a picture that had been presented by the Rabaul Art Society “I would like to confirm that I have received the plague and will have someone affixed to the frame of the picture!”
~ all I can say I'm glad it wasn't catching!!
............... going down onto the tarmac to retrieve a shipment of poisonous snakes that had been shipped down from the Baiyer River Reserve near Mt. Hagen to be sent on to a zoo overseas.
The snakes were in a small wooden box with very fine metal gauze on one side to allow air to get in, the box had been stowed behind the front bulkhead on the F27 ~ just in front of the first row of PAX ~ only problem was the gauze had caught on some other bits of cargo and had ripped open and the snakes had all slithered away to only knows where as they were never discovered ~ not that anyone way overly keen to meet them on a one to one basis!! Y
.............. Roger McBride realised that he was sharing his toothbrush ~ Roger was treasurer of the POM cricket club ( having been a former QF 1st Eleven player in his prime) , Having arrived at Air Niugini House early one Monday morning he remembered that he had left the cricket Club money tin at home, so off he dashed to pick it up only to catch ,when he arrived unexpectedly at his home, his house boy in the act of putting Ajax on his (Roger's) toothbrush in an effort to try and remove the all too familiar Betel nut stains on his teeth ( I can report that the stains and the money box were still intact !)
And to finish off a couple of unsubstantiated stories that I heard...
............... A gold ingot, part of a shipment from Wau (ex Bulolo) going through to a Bank in Sydney, was being kept under close watch in the POM cargo terminal when there was a power cut. It was necessary to open the doors to let some air in as the Aircon was off and in an effort to locate a small but solid object to hold one of the doors onto the airside open someone grabbed one of the ingots. There was then a shift change and the original shipment was loaded onto a dolly for transport to the aircraft minus the ' doorstop’. A major enquiry was undertaken after the shortage was discovered by the Bank, however the loss remained a total mystery and insurers paid out on the claim. Some years later the packaging on the doorstop wore through and low and behold!!!!!! ~ Only wish I had found it!!
................ when organising one of the many live dog shipments to Australia the local vet told me that a few years back when he was arranging to ship Lady Cleland's pet dog back to Australia they left it late to get to the airport in time for the flight and overlooked to secure the delivery van doors doors properly in the rush. Somewhere around fivemile the wooden cage with the dog in it fell out of the back of the van, the door on the dog case burst open and Lady Cleland's dog went for its life............. not to be outdone, given all the trouble that had been taken to get to this stage a quick decision was taken to catch a small Port Moresby ' Special "and pop that in the cage and send it in place of the missing pooch ~ mission accomplished ..... and imagine the surprise!
end.
Do you remember when ......
................the staff morning cup of coffee tasted very fishy ~ further investigations discovered that the night shift had been helping themselves to some of the Daru Crayfish in the freezer and boiling them up in the large hot water urn that we had in the cargo department ~( you could take off the lid of the urn to fill it up.)
Worse was to come however ........
................ discovered very early one morning that the staff member who was mopping out the toilets in the cargo department was also filling the hot water urn from the same mopping out bucket !!!! ~ its a wonder we all survived !!
.............. a wild PNG dog was repatriated from Taronga Park Zoo and having been brought up to the terminal from the tarmac a cargo staff member opened the cage to give the "wild dog " a fresh drink of water. The dog seized this opportunity and made good its escape, crossing the runway and running amok around the WW2 revetments on the far side of the strip. After a good search there was no sign of the wild dog and local Port Moresby authorities were very concerned that the wild dog would interbreed with the Port Moresby 'specials' and produce a very fiercesome new breed ~ 36 hours after the escape however one of the 'Eagle' eyed cargo staff spotted a dark fleck moving at pace over the far side of the airstrip. Cargo staff jumped aboard 3 or 4 tarmac tugs and gave chase. Civil Aviation were alerted to the problem when they noticed the tarmac tugs bounding across the runway and they also gave pursuit in their 4 wheel drive vehicle, complete with a scoped rifle used to shoot any strays on the airfield. The rifle was surplus to requirements however as the wild dog came very mildly into the custody of one of the cargo staff and the latest PX crisis was finally over. I recall as a reward the 5 cargo staff who finally caught the dog were each rewarded with K2.00 out of our Coke machine profits!
.............. a large crocodile escaped from the croc farm, situated beyond the airstrip back markers, and decided the tarmac on the end of the runway was a perfect place to catch a good suntan ~ again flights were delayed until the crocodile was recaptured and removed back to the farm ( not by PX staff either ).
.............. PX traffic had a large and willing Australian expatriate that we in cargo fondly called " Clancy of the overload " for obvious reasons !
..............going around the tarmac surrounding the cargo terminal, first thing in the morning ,banging on the sides of the aluminium cargo containers ( ULDs) to wake up any staff that had taken up residence and were asleep in the containers.
............... a CX 'undercover' Dangerous goods inspector arrived at the terminal cargo check in point unannounced and presented staff with a flimsy cardboard box which he said contained Gallium ( Class 8 / UN ID 2803) and wanted it shipped aboard the CX PAX flight. The product was not recognised by the receiving staff member as a nasty corrosive requiring specialist packaging and DG documentation and as consequence PX was disallowed to load cargo on the CX services for some time!
................ Do you remember when it was discovered that catering had been delivering 102 staff meals a week to the cargo department when in fact the flight schedules had long since changed but catering had not been notified, and there was no staff rostered on to eat them ~ the mystery as to who had eaten these meals remains to this day !!
............... When the following message was received from the PX Rabaul office after they had been sent an engraved plaque to attach to a picture that had been presented by the Rabaul Art Society “I would like to confirm that I have received the plague and will have someone affixed to the frame of the picture!”
~ all I can say I'm glad it wasn't catching!!
............... going down onto the tarmac to retrieve a shipment of poisonous snakes that had been shipped down from the Baiyer River Reserve near Mt. Hagen to be sent on to a zoo overseas.
The snakes were in a small wooden box with very fine metal gauze on one side to allow air to get in, the box had been stowed behind the front bulkhead on the F27 ~ just in front of the first row of PAX ~ only problem was the gauze had caught on some other bits of cargo and had ripped open and the snakes had all slithered away to only knows where as they were never discovered ~ not that anyone way overly keen to meet them on a one to one basis!! Y
.............. Roger McBride realised that he was sharing his toothbrush ~ Roger was treasurer of the POM cricket club ( having been a former QF 1st Eleven player in his prime) , Having arrived at Air Niugini House early one Monday morning he remembered that he had left the cricket Club money tin at home, so off he dashed to pick it up only to catch ,when he arrived unexpectedly at his home, his house boy in the act of putting Ajax on his (Roger's) toothbrush in an effort to try and remove the all too familiar Betel nut stains on his teeth ( I can report that the stains and the money box were still intact !)
And to finish off a couple of unsubstantiated stories that I heard...
............... A gold ingot, part of a shipment from Wau (ex Bulolo) going through to a Bank in Sydney, was being kept under close watch in the POM cargo terminal when there was a power cut. It was necessary to open the doors to let some air in as the Aircon was off and in an effort to locate a small but solid object to hold one of the doors onto the airside open someone grabbed one of the ingots. There was then a shift change and the original shipment was loaded onto a dolly for transport to the aircraft minus the ' doorstop’. A major enquiry was undertaken after the shortage was discovered by the Bank, however the loss remained a total mystery and insurers paid out on the claim. Some years later the packaging on the doorstop wore through and low and behold!!!!!! ~ Only wish I had found it!!
................ when organising one of the many live dog shipments to Australia the local vet told me that a few years back when he was arranging to ship Lady Cleland's pet dog back to Australia they left it late to get to the airport in time for the flight and overlooked to secure the delivery van doors doors properly in the rush. Somewhere around fivemile the wooden cage with the dog in it fell out of the back of the van, the door on the dog case burst open and Lady Cleland's dog went for its life............. not to be outdone, given all the trouble that had been taken to get to this stage a quick decision was taken to catch a small Port Moresby ' Special "and pop that in the cage and send it in place of the missing pooch ~ mission accomplished ..... and imagine the surprise!
end.
