An Antonov cargo plane has overshot the end of the runway on landing earlier today. The AN-124, registered UR-82007, rolled out beyond the end of the runway surface while landing in the dark at Sao Paulo-Guarulhos. The airport was temporarily closed until the aircraft could be removed.
AN-124 overshoots runway
Throughout the pandemic, Antonov Airlines has been busy carrying vital cargo around the world as well as continuing its normal shipments. Today, an AN-124 loaded up with 60 tonnes of personal protective equipment met an unfortunate end when landing at Sao Paulo Airport in Brazil.
The aircraft took off from Paramaribo in Suriname at 00:06 this morning. Flying under flight number ADB3829, it headed south for the four-hour and 45 minute trip to Brazil. Landing at 04:49, it touched down safely but overshot the end of the runaway by around 660 feet (200 meters).
The crew were reported to be unhurt, but the plane did sustain some minor damage. Thankfully the ground was fairly firm, which enabled a push-back vehicle to successfully return the Antonov to the runway surface. The aircraft was cleared by 07:00 local time and airport operations were resumed.
#Brasil 🇧🇷🚨📢 Antonov An-124 REG- UR-82007 salió de la pista después de aterrizar en São Paulo (GRU), alrededor de las 4:50 am de hoy. Una de las pistas del aeropuerto internacional de Guarulhos estuvo cerrada hasta la retirada de la aeronave, alrededor de las 7 am (Brasilia) pic.twitter.com/fn23rCbqjS
— PatriotaCazador (@PCazador2021) May 11, 2021
UR-82007 is one of seven AN-124 aircraft in use by Antonov Airlines. It is 34.9 years old, and has been busy flying cargo throughout the pandemic. Data from RadarBox.com shows it has spent much time at Almaty, Leipzig Halle, Anchorage and Kuwait in the past few months, although this seems to be its first flight to Sao Paulo this year.
In April alone, UR-82007 undertook 24 flights covering a distance of more than 39,000 miles. Based in Ukraine, Antonov Airlines was the first operator to offer the An-124-100 to the commercial market, and remains the world’s only operator of the gigantic AN-225 Mriya aircraft.
Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests.
A tricky few months
The AN-124 has had a challenging time in the past few months. An uncontained engine failure on one of the type, operated by Volga Dnepr, led to an emergency landing and a runway excursion, causing the landing gear to snap and the giant aircraft to end up nose down in the snow.
As a result of this, Volga Dnepr took the decision to ground its entire fleet of AN-124s, 12 aircraft in all, while the airline undertook inspections. With Christmas fast approaching, Antonov Airlines was pushed to re-activate the AN-225 Mryia to fill the void left by the Volga-Dnepr fleet.
Antonov Airlines never grounded its fleet, but continued to press on with fulfilling vital delivery missions. This saw it carrying a huge 54-tonne generator from Ghana to India, and flying mining equipment to Brazil from Australia.
Today’s incident is unrelated to the previous engine failure of the type. The cause of the excursion is unknown at this time, although the Aviation Herald states that Brazil’s Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) is investigating the incident.
