29th Aug 2016.
KLM Airlines Transports Special Cargo ~ T Reg
Posted on the 02 September 2016 by Sampathkumar Sampath
How often do you
fly ? ~ how many baggage do you carry ? and what else !
Air France–KLM incorporated
under French law has its headquarters at Charles de Gaulle Airport in
Tremblay-en-France, near Paris. KLM Airlines web states that a small cat or dog
can be taken into the economy class cabin of most KLM flights, and in Business
Class on most KLM flights within Europe.
There culd be some restrictions such as that kennel should comply with
IATA rules; total l weight of pet and
kennel combined may be max. 75 kg (165 lbs).
They accept a max of 3 pets per passenger as check-in passage ~ above that
to be shipped as cargo.
I somehow did not
relish the much acclaimed sci-fi ‘Jurassic Park’ directed by Steven Spielberg, based
on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. The film was set on the fictional Isla
Nublar, an islet located off Central America's Pacific Coast, near Costa Rica,
where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have
created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs.
Of the many Jurassic
animals was ‘Tyrannosaurus’ meaning "tyrant lizard", a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur.
The species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning "king" in Latin), is one
of the most well-represented of the large theropods.
Tyrannosaurus lived
throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island
continent known as Laramidia. Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest
meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived. Everything about this ferocious
predator, from its thick, heavy skull to its 4-foot-long (1.2-meter-long) jaw,
was designed for maximum bone-crushing action. Scientists believe this powerful
predator could eat up to 500 pounds (230 kilograms) of meat in one bite. Tyrannosaurus
rex lived in forested river valleys in North America during the late Cretaceous
period. It became extinct about 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous-Tertiary
mass extinction.
More than 50
specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex have been identified, some of which are nearly
complete skeletons. The feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of
Tyrannosaurus rex are a few subjects of debate. This post is not about the
dinosaurs or about the film ! ~ but about the cargo – an unusual one in a trans-Atlantic
flight - a 6-tonne, 43-foot-long, 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex holding
a joke Dutch passport.
MailONline reports
that the fossil - one of the best-preserved dinosaur skeletons in the world -
was transported from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Amsterdam's
Schiphol International Airport by Dutch national airline KLM. The female T-Rex,
nicknamed 'Trix', was hauled onto the Boeing 747 after she was excavated in the
US state of Montana by a team from the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the
Dutch city of Leiden.
Perhaps the most
unusual cargo ever to be transported on a plane, it shared the remarkable
flight with some 250 ordinary passengers.
The Executive VP of KLM Cargo said it was a great honor to transport 'the
historic queen of dinosaurs' as the fearsome creature which featured in the
Jurassic Park hit film franchise was even given a brand-new passport by the
Dutch authorities.
Trix lived some 66
million years ago in what is now western North America, on what was then an
island continent known as Laramidia. It is one of the biggest predators to have
ever walked the earth. Dr Anne Schulp, head of the Tyrannosaurus Rex research
department at Naturalis which excavated the site in Montana, welcomed the skeleton to the Dutch city of Leiden. She
said: 'When we started the search for a Tyrannosaurus Rex, I could not have
imagined us finding such a remarkable and distinctive individual.'
The dinosaur's trip
was not just by air, with a specially decorated truck also helping out. With almost 80 percent of her bones found and
their unique quality, she is said to rank in the top-three of best
Tyrannosaurus skeletons in the world. The skeleton will be ready for public
viewing at the end of 2018 in the new dinosaur hall of the museum in Leiden.
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
29th Aug 2016.
29th Aug 2016.