Intermodal airport
Landing his single-engined aeroplane at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport on July 29, a bemused pilot found when he touched down that the inviting runway was actually the concrete apron of a ramp track at Burlington Northern & Santa Fe’s Intermodal Hub Centre, 3 km from the airport. Alert employees spotted the incoming plane and cleared everyone from the ramp, so there were no injuries. The pilot took off again almost immediately, but on arrival at his destination he was met by BNSF security, airport security and Federal Aviation Administration officials and escorted off for ’a long chat’.
Ferry slowly now
Tranz Rail engineers moved swiftly to arrange the movement of 15 second-hand diesel locos from Queensland to New Zealand using one of the company’s Cook Strait ferries returning from overhaul in Brisbane. But on arrival in Wellington the locos were impounded by the Ministry of Agriculture. Officials found poisonous redback spiders, 3 tonnes of soil, prohibited seeds and wasps on board the diesels, which had to be fumigated before the railway could get them out of quarantine.
