Virgin
Atlantic’s daily flight from London Heathrow
VS900 has an early arrival pulling into Terminal
1 as can be seen on the mound clock in the
background (scheduled time is 9:00am). The
aircraft, A340-642 G-VGOA “Indian Princess”,
has an “Air born - August 2003”-sticker
on the nose in addition to the brand new “Backing
the bid London 2012” markings on the
aft fuselage and the well-known “4 engines
4 long haul”-statement on the engine
nacelles.
One of the personal highlights of my spotting activities at Narita was when
Aeroflot’s DC10-40F VP-BDE lined up on runway 34L. Here it seen
from “Hatake Point” just outside of the perimeter fence.
777-200
VP-BAS has a very wet departure to Moscow as
Aeroflot flight SU576.
Surprisingly:
Another “Star Alliance”-first for
my collection is Lufthansa’s A340-311 D-AIGC.
Here seen operating LH715 to Munich (daily except
Thursday). The aircraft offers on-board internet
technology externally evidenced by the unusual
roof fairing.
Nine
days before this shot of F-GSQA being Air France’s
first 777-300ER was taken, flight AF275 to Paris
Charles de Gaulle had to make an unscheduled
technical stop at Hamburg for refuelling.
Scandinavian
Airlines operates a daily A340-313X to Copenhagen
under the flight number SK984 which is departing
just when the weather was at its worst.
Turkish Airlines sends one of its A340-313X,
here it’s TC-JIH, to Narita four
times a week. It then heads home to Istanbul
in the early afternoon as TK51 around
the same time an American Airlines 777-200
arrives from Dallas Ft. Worth.
Being
the first of two daily services British Airways
on this route, BA5 operated by former “Rendezvous” aircraft
G-BYGE is turning in from the taxiway towards
Terminal 1 having arrived from London Heathrow.
AZ785
is Alitalia’s Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
777-243ER flight to Rome. It is complemented
by a daily service to Milan using the same equipment.
MD-11
OH-LGB is taxiing in behind yet another Korean
Air aircraft ending the twice weekly Finnair
flight AY73 from Helsinki. In the top right corner
parts of the Holiday Inn Tobu Narita can be seen
where more than one night time earthquake was
compromising not only the spotter’s sleep.
