The incredible story of Ruslan: An-124 stood in Brussels for 476 days due to thunderstorm and legal battles (video)
A thunderstorm at Brussels airport was one of the reasons for the 476-day delay in the departure of the Ukrainian giant An-124 Ruslan transport aircraft, the pilot of Antonov Airlines said.
Dmytro Antonov on his YouTube channel.
According to the pilot, on August 18, 2004, he was flying from Gostomel to Brussels to pick up cargo and fly on to Baku.
“In Brussels, we pulled in and turned off the airplane. I immediately went out to look at the cargo and met our excited agent. He said that bailiffs were at the airport entrance and wanted to detain the plane,” Antonov says.
At the time, there was a dispute between the Cyprus-based TMR Energy Ltd and the State Property Fund of Ukraine over the oil refinery in Lysychansk. The Cypriots won the case in the Stockholm Arbitration Court and, on this basis, began to seek the seizure of Ukrainian property abroad. One Ukrainian An-124 Ruslan had already been arrested in Canada by that time.
According to Antonov, he decided to immediately fly out of Brussels, requested permission to fly to Luxembourg, and within 5 minutes began to move to the runway. To save time, they decided to take off immediately, without preheating the engines.
And then the dispatcher tells Antonov: “The airport is closed. There is a thunderstorm right over the airfield. Expect a delay of 10 minutes.”
“10 minutes pass, the airport opens, but we are told that we are not going anywhere. The flight is banned,” the Ukrainian pilot shares his memories.
The situation was resolved in only a year and a half, and the AN-124 Ruslan was able to take off from Brussels on December 7, 2005. Dmytro Antonov also took it away.
“I was told that the one who brought the plane is the one who takes it away,” the pilot recalls.
