Stansted Olympic Opening Ceremony Flights

After spending the Thursday before the Olympic Opening ceremony at Luton (see seperate post) I spent the day of the ceremony itself at Stansted, watching the many interesting aircraft that visited in connection with the event.

One of the first biz jets to arrive was Challenger N3736

N3736 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

BA/GSS 747-8 G-GSSD was the highlight of the regular traffic:-

G-GSSD by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Although the biz jet traffic hadn’t been as busy as Luton the previous day, there were still plenty of arrivals, one of the more interesting being this Venezuelan example:-

YV2040 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Around mid morning though, things really started to get interesting. Tu-154 OM-BYO livened things up amongst the large numbers of spotters who were by now getting very bored of the Ryaniar 737s:-

OM-BYO by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

A couple of Rossiya IL-96s arrived, and Airbus action was provided by the Amri flight, along with the German and Czech Air Forces:-

2801 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

The Russians took the honours for visitor of the day though, when IL-62 RA-86468 arrived:-

RA-86468 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

It was the first time I have seen a ’62 for many years – I wonder when I will next see one?

Another airliner visitor was Saudi Arabian 777 HZ-AKF which didn’t stay for long:-

HZ-AKF by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

As it got later, the Olympic related arrivals gradually stopped, and I took a walk up towards the fire training area, as many aircraft were parked along the taxiway. Canadian Falcon C-GBBX was one of the first I saw:-

C-GBBX by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

The highlight along here was Panamanian Embraer HP-1A – the first aircraft I have seen from Panama:-

HP-1A by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

At about 7:30 I decided it was time to leave for home. Not before stopping at the executive area though, which was packed with aircraft from around the world. Australian Gulfstream VH-PFL had travelled the furthest:-

VH-PFL by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

The aircraft were often closely parked, and as the light started to fade it was difficult to get a good shot of many of them, but I never let the opportunity to photograph a 727 pass, especially if it is from Cote d’ Ivoire:-

TU-VAO by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

I travelled home very happy with my haul from the two days, and also worth noting was how friendly and co-operative everyone had been, not least Essex Police at Stansted, who seemed happy for us to roam far and wide in the executive area to get the shots we needed.

Plent more photos from my visit can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiaecho/

Neil