The landing of the plane, one of the largest that has ever arrived at the airport, caused a huge expectation.
The helicopter was housed in the installation hangar.
The landing of a plane rarely raises such expectation. On the spot, or through social networks, where images were bounced to satiety, the arrival yesterday at the Hondarribia airfield of a huge freighter of the United States armed forces made an impression.
The military aircraft, a 53-meter-long Boeing C-17 Globemaster, also brought in its guts a unique merchandise: a Marine One, one of the helicopters that American President Donald Trump usually takes on board.
The device, apparently from an air base in Dover (England), landed in Hondarribia a few minutes after noon. “It has been a landing with total normality,” Aena sources explained to GIPUZKOA NEWS.
And how is it possible for such an apparatus to land in Hondarribia, an airfield continually questioned by the limited length of its runway? Because an airplane of these characteristics can land on virtually any surface.
“The needs that a commercial plane requires are not the same as those of a military one. A plane of this type can land on a short runway, on a dirt track…On a one kilometer runway it can land and take off,” said the same sources.
In fact, at about 13.30, when it took off from the Gipuzkoan airport, the US freighter just needed half a kilometer of the runway to be planted on top of Hendaia’s buildings.
During the time he remained at the facility, about twenty workers, along with a dozen US military, unloaded from the interior of the numerous aircraft material for the G-7 summit that will begin Friday in Biarritz.
Among boxes and packages, the most precious was undoubtedly the Marine One, a Whitehawk VH-60N helicopter that pilots the Marine Corps and is used for the displacements of President Trump (the vice president travels in the Marine Two).
The helicopter, also large, was housed in the hangars of the airport, as confirmed by the same sources of Aena. Trump usually travels in the Marine One and in the presidential limousine in all his displacements, whether in the US or outside his country.
In the case of Marine One , several identical helicopters usually fly at the same time, sometimes up to five, as a safety measure. As ETB said yesterday, the Air Force One in which Trump will travel to the summit could land in Mont-de-Marsan.
The Boeing that landed yesterday is one of the largest planes that have ever landed at the Hondarribia airport, where the largest aircraft operating are the Airbus 320 Neo of the Vueling company, 37 meters long.
Anea sources consulted by this newspaper said they do not expect more flights of this type in the coming days on the occasion of the summit of presidents of the G-7.
The plane, the Boeing C-17 Globemaster is a military freighter of the United States Air Force. It has a length of 53 meters. It is one of the largest devices that has ever come to these facilities.
The helicopter. The device that carried the military aircraft is the Marine One , one of the helicopters used by the president of the United States in his travels.
Specifically, it is a VH-60N Whitehawk model. The Marine One is transported where the president travels, both inside and outside the United States. The same goes for the presidential limousine.
1,427 meters is the length of the Hondarribia runway for the landing maneuver, and 1,577 for the takeoff. Its length limits the operation of commercial aircraft.
However, freighters such as the Boeing C-17 have characteristics that allow them to land on a runway with such a limited length.
Source: Noticiasdegipuzkoa
