13-14/5/2020 Sixth Visit of the Antonov 225 in LGAV

                                                            Sixth time's the charm!

 Amidst the huge downturn in airport traffic due to the Covid19 pandemic, there were very few interesting movements carrying medical supplies or performing repatriation flights. Goes without saying that all spotters were left hungry for some action - until a couple of days ago!

 The world's largest and heaviest aircraft, the Antonov An225 Mriya, flew to Athens LGAV carrying medical supplies from Tianjin, China with a nightstop for crew rest in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 It was May 13th at 09:30 sharp (exactly on scheduled time) that the two-tailed six engined 32-wheeled beast visited LGAV for the sixth time as ADB3389, but it was the first time we had the priviledge to see it and photo/video it with proper, bright morning light. Thus, the biggest planespotters gathering around LGAV took place (in my opinion, even bigger than Champions League 2007, the 2004 Olympics or the first A380 and even the first An225 visit back in 2005).
 All photos by author unless otherwise stated.

 At 09:00 the monster overflew the Aegean island of Chios, and my friend Vasilis Madonis was, of course, alert:

At about 09:25, a familiar shape that haunts every aviation enthusiast's dreams appeared on finals for runway 03R:

Photos of the arrival from some good friends that were kind enought to provide me some of their pics:

Elliott Kefalas

Dimitris Dimitrakopoulos

                                                                 Dimitris Kotsifakis

                                                                  Kostas Marmarelis

                                                                  Thanasis Ozrefanidis

                                                                      Giannis Pitsakis

                                                                      Chrysa Poulaki

                                                                 Giannis Soultanis

George Markakis 

                                              Video of the arrival by Vassilis Kranitsas:

                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGe5NRw9ZNo&t=179s

                      The aircraft the taxiied to stand A46 of LGAV, where unloading begun.

                                         

                                                                14/5/2020: the departure

Again precisely on time at 12:00, UR-82060 taxied to the holding point of 03R and powered up its six Progress D-18T. The sight and sound was out of this world, although for its size I can say it is a quiet aircraft!

                    Photos from a different vantage point from a father/son planespotter duo:

                                                                Ilias Diakoumakos

                      ...and his 12y.o son Odysseas (IMO one of the best pics of this visit!)

                           Video of the departure by (yes, you guessed it) Vassilis Kranitsas:

                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi8XoWkgEVg

A long video compilation from boty days by Elliott Kefalas, with videos from many angles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uh0prKP9eY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3hK6V0TVIqxub42dXMBXBhV06lEhDGOSxUzNd4ZspvQjSrx4P6vzRKvl8

I need to thank all my spotter friends for contributing their pics, and I also need to dedicate this blog post to the spotter friends that could not be here with us due to the Covid19 traffic restrictions.

                                                 Here's to the next one! Πάντα τέτοια!