By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Namibia is on its way to becoming the hub for oil exploration, with the landing of the world’s biggest cargo plane, the Antonov 225, at Hosea Kutako International Airport on Wednesday night. On board the six-engined plane, which landed an hour before the scheduled time of 21h15, was a total consignment of equipment weighing almost 112 tonnes. The high-value cargo from Cologne, Germany, is destined for the floating storage offloading called ‘Greater Plutonio’ which will dock outside Walvis Bay in two weeks. The Plutonio is employed in the offshore and oil gas explorations in the waters of Angola. Included in the cargo on the plane were three ship reels each weighing 37 tonnes and other equipment used for oil exploration purposes in Angola. On the scene, General Manager of Corporate Public Relations of Manica Group Namibia, Shalli Ben-Elungu, informed the media about the offloading process. “First a platform will be created, onto which the equipment will be loaded. There is also other equipment on board the plane that will be used to hook on the reels which the crane will pick up and load onto two trucks,” said Ben-Elungu. Upon arrival, two trucks and a crane were already awaiting the offloading of the equipment, which took hours for the Russian crew to carry out. The visitors first had to construct a special rail line leading out of the belly of the plane onto the tarmac. After that, the crew pushed out the much-needed equipment one by one whilst being lifted by the crane onto the awaiting trucks. Captain Antonov Dimitry, assisted by Captain Spasibo Andry and Floor Officer Mosin Vlandimin, headed the Russian crew. According to Ben-Elungu, the offloading was completed on Wednesday night and trucks started leaving yesterday morning by road for the port of Walvis Bay. The Antonov 225 is scheduled to leave today after taking in 180ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 litres of avgas fuel. Upon enquiry the Namibia Airports Company Manager, Anton Theart, said there was enough fuel to fill a plane of that magnitude. This is evident that Namibia is able to handle this kind of consignment. “Yes, the fuel is enough. This is definitely an historical event for Namibia and the Namibia Airports Company, and we want to attract more of these kinds of planes to the country,” said Theart. The giant Antonov 225 was originally built for use in the Soviet Union’s shuttle space programme. “An-225”, as it was nicknamed, was designed to carry twice as much as a Boeing 747 freighter. The plane can in actual fact carry over 250 tonnes of cargo. It has a wingspan of 88.4 metres and a cargo compartment capable of storing over 80 vehicles. Hundreds of people from all over the country flocked to the international airport to get at least a glimpse of the world’s biggest plane. “It is massive, very big,” said one man who had brought his whole family along, all the way from Keetmanshoop. For most of the people it was surely the first time they have seen such a gigantic plane. Woker Freight Services (WFS), a subsidiary of Manica Group Namibia – acting as agents for the charterer – carried out the smooth operation of the offloading and trans-shipment of the cargo to Walvis Bay. Rennies Consolidated, another subsidiary of Namibia Ground Namibia, will then deliver the cargo on board the “Greater Plutonio” which is due to arrive in port on January 26. Other parties involved in the exercise are Wesbank Transport contracted for the on-land transport, and Express Services as agents for the vessel.