Cargo jet takes off from Wichita on short runway

A mammoth cargo plane that
landed Wednesday night at the wrong
airport in Wichita, Kansas -- one that
typically does not accommodate such
beasts -- took off without incident
Thursday afternoon on a runway half a
mile shorter than it usually uses.
The Boeing 747 Dreamlifter's massive
engines roared as it lumbered down the
pavement, then lifted off and disappeared
into the overcast sky.
A few minutes later, it landed without
incident at the airport 12 miles across
town where it was originally supposed to
land -- McConnell Air Force Base.
An investigation has begun into what
caused the pilot to land at the wrong
airport, said Bonnie Rodney, a
spokeswoman for Atlas Air, which
operates the Boeing-owned jet.
It was laden with cargo
intended for Boeing, she
said.
Boeing said the cargo was a
B-787 fuselage.
Elaborate precautions had
been taken to ensure no one
got hurt in the take-off attempt. Police
closed nearby roads and urged area
residents to stay away from the airport.
"Onlookers and gawkers have caused
accidents," said Roger Xanders, chief of
airport police and fire.
The takeoff came less than a day after the
plane, which was bound for McConnell
from New York's John F. Kennedy
International Airport, missed its mark.
Instead of landing, as had been planned,
at the military airport on Wichita's
southeast side, it landed at the much
smaller, general aviation Col. James
Jabara Airport on the northeast side.
Jabara has no control tower and normally
doesn't handle jumbo jets.
The Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter is a
modified 747-400 passenger airplane that
can haul more cargo by volume than any
airplane in the world.
When fully loaded, the Dreamlifter needs
a runway 9,199 feet long to take off,
reports affiliate KWCH. The Jabara runway
is 6,101 feet.
But a spokeswoman for the airport
authority, Valerie Wise, cited favorable
weather Thursday and the fact that much
of the fuel had been used in the flight
from JFK -- which lightened the weight of
the plane -- for the conclusion that it was
safe to take off on the shorter runway.
"The engineers have been running
calculations all night," she said.