Around The World In 45 Days With The Olympic Flame
14th July 2004
Early in 2003, Darren Banham from Chapman Freeborn Airchartering’s
London office heard about an amazing, unique and not to say ambitious project
to fly the Olympic Flame around the world for the first time ever.
Although
the project was of considerable magnitude, when Darren brought the idea
to the attention of CFA’s management, their can-do response was of
course, let’s run with it (excuse the pun!). Darren then set
off to establish what would be involved and how it could be done.
It became clear that the project was already growing and growing…
On 3rd February 2003 Darren submitted a bid on behalf of Chapman Freeborn;
a weighty proposal outlining various options and eventually toward the end
of 2003, the bid was formally awarded to us – for two dedicated jumbos
to fly the Olympic Flame around the world in 45 days, starting and finishing
at the home of the flame in Greece and visiting every continent on route.
That was where the work really started and it is fair to say that the
project has been the single focus of Darren’s life for the last 6
months culminating in the day - 1st June 2004 when he climbed on board the
first of the 2 Boeing 747’s that had been chartered for the purpose
as it took off from Gatwick Airport to start it’s epic voyage. Over
the last few months Darren whose feet have rarely touched the ground had
a number of his colleagues such as Ground Station Manager Nick Yeadon and
Barry Sargeant, Operations Manager of CF’s 24 hour operations division,
Paragon Global, back him up to cover all the points to be visited globally.
Darren and his team literally visited every port of call on the Torch
Relay route to set up airport procedures, meeting with officials at the
highest level to ensure that as much attention was paid to the considerable
ground logistics – media liaison, safety and security, as well as
managing the two aircrafts’ precious passengers and cargo.
It
was an exhausting schedule, although Darren did manage to spend a couple
of weeks back home in London for the birth of his first child – a
son called Ryan – much to the relief of his wife!
“For Chapman Freeborn this has been a logistics exercise quite unlike
any other we’ve undertaken” said Carol Norman, the company’s
Managing Director. She continued “I’ve had some of my
key staff on 3 continents at the same time just chasing down problems. There
is no doubt it has been an incredible learning experience for us all.”
To further illustrate the growth of Chapman Freeborn across other related
aspects of aviation, it was our operations division, Paragon Global Flight
Support that managed the trip operationally – organizing fuel, handling,
landing and overflight permits and so on. Paragon regularly undertake
this work for certain scheduled operators and other ad hoc charters that
Chapman Freeborn have worked on, including a recent tour of South
America for a major recording artiste flown on a DC-8 combi operated by
American carrier Air Transport International. But there is no doubt
that the Torch Relay project has also been one of Paragon’s largest
to date.
The aircraft seen in the attached pictures – named Zeus –
first took off from Gatwick where it had been modified to house the
flame. It was a very proud moment for everyone in Chapman Freeborn / Paragon
Global when Zeus took off and overflew the gathered crowd on the roof of
the new CF office at Astral Towers, Crawley.
Both aircraft were operated by Air Atlanta from Iceland and were equipped
as a multi class plane. The second plane named Hera left a little earlier
from Manston in Kent. Not only did they have a special interior, but
both aircraft were also given a whole new livery to ensure that they were
instantly recognizable on their round the world trip. The idea of
two aircraft was that the first went ahead and brought the equipment for
the arrival of the flame and then the main aircraft followed with media
and sponsors on board.
The
journey with the flame lasted 45 days in all, taking in 26 countries in
34 cities on all of the world’s continents. Chapman Freeborn’s
Nick Yeadon, who flew on board the Relay with Darren commented: “It
was an amazing project in every sense. Every flight with both aircraft
went seamlessly and without any delays. The welcome we received at
each location on the route was something I will never forget. And
it is very bizarre to have a digital camera filled with pictures of the
Sydney Opera House, Tianenmen Square, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building
and the Parthenon, all from one trip!”
The actual route was as follows: started in Athens on 1st June,
then on to Sydney, Mebourne, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing, the bustling streets
of Delhi, then Cairo-- its first entrance on African soil -- and to Cape
Town.
Next, the two jets crossed the Atlantic Ocean, to Rio de Janeiro, Mexico
City, and onward to the cities of Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta and New
York City. After visiting Montreal, the Olympic flame crossed the Atlantic
once more, and visited many major European cities, including Antwerp, Brussels,
Amsterdam, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, London, Barcelona, Rome, Munich, Berlin,
Stockholm, and Helsinki. The last leg of the journey was from Moscow, to
Kiev, Istanbul, and Sofia before the home leg of Heraklion to Athens,
the resting place of the flame on 9th July.
The Athens 2004 Olympic games start on 13th August 2004.
Chapman Freeborn are one of the world’s oldest established aircraft
charter brokers and aviation support companies with offices in some 20 countries
in the world and employing over 300 people in various activities. The company
was founded in 1973 and recently moved its head office to the Gatwick area.
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