Toss Her on Up

The AN-12 I toured, not the one I saw loading up for the trip to Kinshasa.
AN-12 flight deck.









Just after this picture was taken I grabbed the wheel and began to make "zoom, zoom" noises.




I was on the ramp in Kisangani the other day (a lot of these tales start with that phrase) and some GSSP troops were boarding an AN-12 for a trip to Kinshasa. There were over 100 of them lined up on the ramp, each with his weapon and pack; not just AK's and machine guns but RPG's with grenades stuck in the tubes.

They were boarding at a door in the center of the fuselage by climbing up a boarding ladder. As each one reached the top, he would turn to the others and wave an arm or flourish a pineapple in triumph. Everybody would cheer and then the troop on the ladder would enter the airplane. A couple waved a bunch of bananas instead of a pineapple but the crowd didn't seem to mind. All but the last few did this. They got cheated because there wasn't an audience left.

After the last boarded the door closed. There was still a group of troops who weren't going on the flight milling around. A few minutes passed and an emergency exit hatch on the fuselage side opened up and two guys leaned out. The crowd lifted up a woman with a baby slung on her back. Those in the plane grabbed her, hoisted up through the hatch and closed it behind her. I wonder if she was included in the passenger count.

When they are on those airplanes, they don't sit on seats, they sit on the floor of the cargo hold; which isn't pressurized. Only the crew compartment is pressurized. The airplane takes off and climbs to about 20,000 feet and flies to wherever it is going. Those in the back go with it to what is functionally the top of the Andes and sit with their RPG's and pineapples until the destination is reached. Then if it doesn't crash, they get off. The pineapples stay fresh.

These things were told to me by Russian AN-12 crew I talked to. Like all Russians I've met, they were personable and good pilots. They showed me their airplane and boy, was I impressed. The crew compartment was so big you could stand at the bottom and not reach the top even if you stretched. The instrument panel was the most complex I ever saw outside a museum and there was more than 1 instrument panel. I think there were 3. They said the airplane was made in 1963. I don't know if it was fun to fly but it sure was fun to look at.