Giant Antonov plane stops for two hours at Cairns Airport
Far North plane spotters were treated to a glimpse of one of the world’s biggest aircraft when an Antonov An-124 made a brief stop at Cairns Airport this morning.
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FAR North plane spotters were treated to a glimpse of one of the world’s biggest aircraft on Friday morning.
A Volga-Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124-100 touched down at Cairns Airport at 7am.
It departed just over two hours later at 9.20am.
A Cairns Airport spokeswoman said the Antonov landed in the Far North for a fuel stop.
The aircraft had come from Port Moresby and was bound for Indonesia.
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Antonov aircraft have visited Cairns roughly once a year for the past few years, for varying reasons.
In 2019 one was parked at Cairns Airport for a month after delivering helicopters from Singapore to Rockhampton for a military exercise.
The strategic airlift jet was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union.
It attracts huge interest from plane-spotters due to its immense size.
Recently, Antonov aircraft have been used to ferry COVID-19 medical supplies around the world.
Originally published as Giant Antonov plane stops for two hours at Cairns Airport
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