Volga-Dnepr engineers in Ulyanovsk, Russia, had to move quickly this month in response to an urgent customer request. Their mission? To move 35 tonnes of pipeline, in 62-foot-long sections, from Scotland to Turkey.
Huseyn Mammadli, logistics executive with Volga-Dnepr, said the engineers developed a load plan and built a multi-purpose shipping cradle to load the unwieldy pipes for the oil production industry. Manufacturing of the cradle was organized by a team at the U.K.’s London Stansted Airport, while Volga-Dnepr’s engineering and logistics center arranged to rent cranes for the loading and a trailer to get the pipes to Prestwick Airport.
Extra loading equipment was brought in from Leipzig, Germany. Despite strong winds in Prestwick on the day of the loading, the technical crew on the IL-76TD-90VD aircraft was able to build the loading assembly for the huge pipe on the trailer and in the aircraft, fixing the pipes in the cradle and lifting it into the cargo hold.
The cargo arrived in Istanbul three days from the time the customer called. The equipment was delivered on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, for use in oil exploration on the Black Sea shelf in Turkey.