Strange wanderings.

[Tony15]

Does anyone know anything about a flight that apparently took off from Lasham at about 13.00 BST Friday 4/10 (Today)? No flight number but shown as YAPIE, Airbus A340-311 Safi Airways Reg YA-TTB. Currently 14.15 BST stooging around off Cornwall and Scilly Isles.

Watching the wanderings, it looks like a test flight, still over the Bristol Channel at 15.10 BST. Does anyone have a maintenance base at Lasham ? I thought it closed when Dan Air went bust !

[Kelvin]

Didn't see it but heard it from my house (about 4 miles from Lasham).
Depending on the weather, I see the occasional aircraft arriving at or departing from Lasham. DHL seems to be a regular customer. Not too long ago, one of their 757 came overhead here, en route from Lasham to Germany.
There are a few companies still based at Lasham; I think there's one outfit doing re-paints. Also, a mate of mine used to work for a company maintaining landing gear at Lasham but I can't remember who the company was.
Incidentally, FR24 shows this plane as a B737-4YO.
It is also listed as reg YA-PIE (Ariana Afghan Airlines). How's that for confusing?

[Kelvin]

Tony,
It gets worse!
Airfleets shows YA-PIE as stored and YA-TTB was an A340 but was scrapped in 2009.
A ghost plane!

[speedbird1960]

Tony,
It gets worse!
Airfleets shows YA-PIE as stored and YA-TTB was an A340 but was scrapped in 2009.
A ghost plane!

It was added to the Database today.

http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/737/26086,YA-PIE-Pamir-Airways.php

Photo: http://www.skyliner-aviation.de/view...av2&picid=8575

[Tony15]

This ghost plane which was shown as an A340-311 on FR24 landed at Bournmouth later in the afternoon. It spent about three hours stooging around in the Bristol Channel to the North of Cornwall. Just checked in current "Airliners" and Safi Airways are flying YA-TTC and YA-TTD. It is a pity that we had 5/10 cloud this afternoon and I couldn't get a view of it as it passed over Exeter within normal viewing range.
PS. Saw a Nippon Cargo Flt NCA190 B744 flying in close company with a Cargolux Flt CV659 B748, showing single outline across the Atlantic and Southern England, there was only 2000' vertical separation. Saw them pass South of Exeter very close (within a few hundred yards) to each other at 16.12BST.

[Tony15]

YAPIE appeared as the flight number on FR24; aircraft registration was YA-TTB

[Kelvin]

The plane actually appeared on FR24 as both an A340 and a B737.
The info box shows Aircraft (A343) and below that Boeing 737-4YO.
The planespotters link shows aircraft reg YA-PIE (with a photo taken at Lasham) and the skyliner-aviation has a photo taken at Lasham less than a week ago, showing it as YA-PIE, B737 of Ariana.
I guess it has been having a new paint job at Lasham, replacing the Pamirair livery.
I watched the flight on FR24 and noticed that it seemed as if the plane didn't "land" at Bournemouth; it seems to have been doing a series of circuits and bumps and flew off back to Lasham at the end.