It’s not every day you see a Boeing 767 in the sea off the west coast of Ireland.
It was, however, a sight that greeted many people on the west coast on Thursday, as a Boeing 767 made its way from Shannon Airport to Enniscrone, where it will form the centrepiece of the Quirky Glamping Village in the Sligo town.
Much fanfare and excitement is likely to greet the arrival of the aircraft into Enniscrone on Saturday but until then, have a look at how it made its way there in the stunning drone footage provided by Matthew Kelly of the Drone App Lab.
Clip via Shannon Airport
The journey, which is expected to take 36 hours in total, was the third stage in a huge logistics exercise that started last weekend when the wings were removed from the aircraft.
A team of 60 airport staff and logistics people working with David McGowan, whose idea it was to bring the plane to Sligo, were then involved in the second phase as the 159-foot long aircraft, which weighs 50 tons, was transferred on Thursday to nearby Knockbeg Point, on the periphery of the airport complex.
From there, it was loaded onto a barge at high tide, allowing the estuary and ocean journey to begin on Thursday evening.
Tonight (Friday), the barge will dock at Killala, Co. Mayo, across the bay from Enniscrone, before, tides and weather permitting, the aircraft is unloaded at around 7am.
Commenting on the amount of work involved in bringing the plane to Enniscrone, David McGowan said: “I have learned an awful lot about the power of people working together on this project.
“The community spirit has been fantastic. From the tremendous help I got from Shanon Airport, to the many, many people who turned out to see us off, makes it all worthwhile.
“We are making good progress, the barge with the aircraft is making her way up the Wild Atlantic Way. We got good news on the weather front, too, with expected swells now not materialising so we are in good shape to be in landing in Enniscrone tomorrow morning.”
For more information ahead of the arrival of the plane on Saturday, check out the Quirky Glamping website and on Twitter and Facebook.
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