Passenger and cargo Boeing 727s have criss-crossed the globe for decades, however the type is also ideally suited to a more challenging low-level role. Craig West reports on how 2Excel Aviation maintains two of the tri-jets for oil spill response worldwide.
Boeing 727s are a rare sight these days, however Doncaster Sheffeld Airport (DSA) is home to two examples that are kept on standby to help clean up oil spills wherever in the world they may happen. The tri-jets are operated by the ‘Special Missions’ arm of 2Excel Aviation, a self-styled “innovative aviation services business”.
Oil and its by-products have enabled advances in human society in numerous ways, but this ‘black gold’ has to be handled with the utmost care as serious spillages at sea can have catastrophic consequences for the environment. An explosion on a BP-operated offshore drilling rig in the Macondo Prospect on April 20, 2010 led to the second biggest oil spill in history, spewing 4.9m barrels (approximately 210m US gal) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and scattering oil along more than 1,300 miles (2,100km) of shoreline from Texas to Florida. This had major repercussions on global energy and environmental policies, including r…
