Hot Cows!

pclancy

Probably not funny for the poor crew getting an inflight fire warning but this made me giggle after reading through the usual boring accident reports:

Report: Korean B744 over Irish Sea on Jan 17th 2012, hot cows

By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Jul 12th 2012 13:38Z, last updated Friday, Jul 13th 2012 08:33Z
A Korean Air Boeing 747-400, registration HL7601 performing freight flight KE-9560 from Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) to Brussels (Belgium) with 390 cows travelling on the main deck, was enroute at FL340 over the Irish Sea when the crew received an aft main deck fire warning. A crew member left the cockpit to check the main deck and saw no signs of fire or smoke. Although the crew suspected the indication was false probably caused by the presence of the cows, they decided to carry out the relevant checklist procedures, donned their oxygen masks, initiated a controlled cabin depressurization and performed an emergency descent. The aircraft diverted to London Heathrow,EN (UK) for a safe landing, attending emergency services found no trace of fire or smoke.

The AAIB stated in their bulletin the crew believed "the presence of the cattle led to higher than normal levels of humidity and that this was the cause of the warning."

The bulletin did not state on the fate of the cows.

The airline reported none of the cows suffered from hypoxia during the emergency descent, all of them reached London in good condition.

[URL="Report: Korean B744 over Irish Sea on Jan 17th 2012, hot cows By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Jul 12th 2012 13:38Z, last updated Friday, Jul 13th 2012 08:33Z A Korean Air Boeing 747-400, registration HL7601 performing freight flight KE-9560 from Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) to Brussels (Belgium) with 390 cows travelling on the main deck, was enroute at FL340 over the Irish Sea when the crew received an aft main deck fire warning. A crew member left the cockpit to check the main deck and saw no signs of fire or smoke. Although the crew suspected the indication was false probably caused by the presence of the cows, they decided to carry out the relevant checklist procedures, donned their oxygen masks, initiated a controlled cabin depressurization and performed an emergency descent. The aircraft diverted to London Heathrow,EN (UK) for a safe landing, attending emergency services found no trace of fire or smoke. The AAIB stated in their bulletin the crew believed "the presence of the cattle led to higher than normal levels of humidity and that this was the cause of the warning." The bulletin did not state on the fate of the cows. The airline reported none of the cows suffered from hypoxia during the emergency descent, all of them reached London in good condition."]Source[/URL]

Davidth88

What sort of cows are worth enough to transport live by air ?

I truly didn't know livestock like that was transported by air , Horses , of course , I even know of fish being transported , never cows.

shedweller

That is one of the most suprising things i have read in a long time! Were the cows due to end up in a restaraunt? Or were they for research/breeding? Either way, it's an expensive way to ship cows! And the plane would stink to high heaven afterwards!! How would they get rid of all the urine that seeps down through the bodywork of the plane?
These things are going to keep me awake at night!!!

Shamrock231

Brings new meaning to the phrase "Cattle Class"....

Chuck Stone

Lapin

What surprised me most was the fact that the aircraft was diverted to Heathrow.

I thought Stansted was the designated airport for such occurnces.



BTW, love that "Cattle Class" comment above, nice one Shamrock.

Davidth88

I imagine they chose LHR because Korean have a base there .

Does anyone actually know how much these cattle were worth , were they a special breed or for a show or something . Is this common to fly cattle across the Atlantic ?

I remember fish being carried in Nigeria , a 727 was returned to Dan-Air in Lasham after a lease ( early 80's ) , it was so corroded by seawater that it basically had to be scrapped. Apparently the Nigerians were carrying live fish in open tanks in the cargo hold !!

urajoke

Depends on the make and model, some can be VERY expensive !

christy c

Davidth88 wrote: »

I imagine they chose LHR because Korean have a base there .

Does anyone actually know how much these cattle were worth , were they a special breed or for a show or something . Is this common to fly cattle across the Atlantic ?

I remember fish being carried in Nigeria , a 727 was returned to Dan-Air in Lasham after a lease ( early 80's ) , it was so corroded by seawater that it basically had to be scrapped. Apparently the Nigerians were carrying live fish in open tanks in the cargo hold !!

Trying to keep it aviation related, i remember reading MOL bought a bull a few years ago from the US for about 250,000. That would be upper end of the scale but a 747 full of these would be quiet valuable.

Edit: after posting this I thought it sounded odd and after doing a small bit of googling I realized I pulled this figure out of the clouds. Suffice to say I remember him buying an expensive bull from the US and these were probably expensive breeding cattle

jmayo

pclancy wrote: »

Probably not funny for the poor crew getting an inflight fire warning but this made me giggle after reading through the usual boring accident reports:

Report: Korean B744 over Irish Sea on Jan 17th 2012, hot cows

By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Jul 12th 2012 13:38Z, last updated Friday, Jul 13th 2012 08:33Z
A Korean Air Boeing 747-400, registration HL7601 performing freight flight KE-9560 from Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) to Brussels (Belgium) with 390 cows travelling on the main deck, was enroute at FL340 over the Irish Sea when the crew received an aft main deck fire warning. A crew member left the cockpit to check the main deck and saw no signs of fire or smoke. Although the crew suspected the indication was false probably caused by the presence of the cows, they decided to carry out the relevant checklist procedures, donned their oxygen masks, initiated a controlled cabin depressurization and performed an emergency descent. The aircraft diverted to London Heathrow,EN (UK) for a safe landing, attending emergency services found no trace of fire or smoke.

The AAIB stated in their bulletin the crew believed "the presence of the cattle led to higher than normal levels of humidity and that this was the cause of the warning."

The bulletin did not state on the fate of the cows.

The airline reported none of the cows suffered from hypoxia during the emergency descent, all of them reached London in good condition.

There is something very weird about this story.
I find the flying cows between between Chicago and Brussels a bit weird ?
What was so special about them ?
Was the flight destined for somewhere else ?
And why was Korean Air doing the job or are they the carrier of choice for live cattle ?

Surely they were headed the long way home if they were destined for Korea ?

christy c wrote: »

Trying to keep it aviation related, i remember reading MOL bought a bull a few years ago from the US for about 250,000. That would be upper end of the scale but a 747 full of these would be quiet valuable.

Edit: after posting this I thought it sounded odd and after doing a small bit of googling I realized I pulled this figure out of the clouds. Suffice to say I remember him buying an expensive bull from the US and these were probably expensive breeding cattle

One of Mr O'Leary's hobbies is the breeding of thoroughbred Aberdeen Angus cattle and he has a large herd at his pad in Westmeath.
He has a 100 cow herd and it was started with cows from Canada.

Actaully AFAIK Dick Spring's big brother Donal is also a breeder.

jmayo

Keeping this all things bovine and aviation there is bthe funny old story about a Japanese fishing trawler being sunk by a cow falling from the sky.

The fishermen were found clinging to the wreckage and they claimed that a cow fell from the sky and sank their boat.

The crew remained in prison for several weeks until Japanese authorities were contacted by several highly embarrassed Russian air force officials. It turned out that the crew of a Russian cargo plane had stolen a cow that wandered near their Siberian airfield and forced it onto their plane before they took off for a flight home. Once airborne, the cow apparently panicked and starting rampaging through the cargo hold, causing the crew also to panic because it was affecting the plane's stability. They solved the problem by shoving the cow out of the hold while crossing the Sea of Japan at 30,000 feet.

Now this is supposedly an old urban myth and gained traction in the mid 90s when German diplomats forwarded the story from Russia to Berlin and it got into German press.

Davidth88

Love that story !!!

cocoshovel

Why is everything to do with cows so humorous?

10-10-20

Never mind the cattle, how about a couple of tonnes of peat and an old Irish farm-house from Knock in 1993?

Delancey

Amazed nobody here has questioned the figure of 390 cattle on an air freighter - story sounds like bullsh1t to me.

jmayo

Delancey wrote: »

Amazed nobody here has questioned the figure of 390 cattle on an air freighter - story sounds like bullsh1t to me.

Well I did question the story, but not the number which now that you mention does seem a tad big.
How many people can you stuff on a 747 and cows take up a lot more space ?

Maybe they were calves as non farming types don't seem to know the difference between cows, bulls, bullocks, calves, heifers, etc ?