The closure of many countries air space and the general lack of demand has led to the cancellation of a number of flights from all corners of the world. Because of this many countries are operating charter or special flights to bring their stranded citizens back home.
Air India and the India air force operated multiple flights to China, Iran, Italy, etc to bring stranded Indian’s back home. Lufthansa sent an Airbus A380 to New Delhi to collect its citizens. And the list goes on.
Wamos Air is a Spanish charter company that operated a Boeing 747-400 (EC-KXN) to South America on Thursday to presumably carry stranded Spanish nationals back to Madrid.
The aircraft flew from Madrid to Guatemala City on Thursday (26th March). The next day it flew from Guatemala City to San Salvador to San Pedro Sula back to Madrid.
While this wouldn’t count as particularly special – What made it stand out is a video of the aircraft San Pedro Sula being manually pushed back by ground handlers. Instead of a push back tug, there are people at each of the wheels of the aircraft pushing it back.
Esta tarde salen varios espoñoles del Aeropuerto Ramón Villeda Morales de SPS, luego que España activara el Mecanismo Europeo de Protección Civil para hacer una operación en Centroamérica que permitiría dar salida a unos 400 turistas de ese pais que se encuentran en la región. pic.twitter.com/zLm3e5Jg9Z
— Hondudiario.com (@hondudiario) March 27, 2020
My initial thoughts after watching the video are that the airport may not have a suitable push back tug – but it does receive regular service from an Amerijet 767 and Air Europa 787. However, a fully loaded 747 would be a lot heavier than either of those. Or maybe they didn’t have a suitable towbar?
What do you think was the reason for this unique pushback?