Worsley the recipient of Antonov’s heavy cargo

The world’s biggest plane the Antonov An-225 Mriya landed in Perth last week and the only cargo it was carrying was for South 32 Worsley Alumina in Collie.

It was the first time the plane had visited Australia, despite flying since 1988, and sparked the interest of more than 30,000 visitors in its short stay.

The Antonov was the only aircraft in the world capable of transporting the power generator because of its maximum takeoff weight of 640-tonnes.

A spokesman from South 32 said the plane collected the 117-tonne generator from Prague, carrying it to WA via Kuala Lumpur. The shipment was handled by transport and logistics company DB Schenker.

“It was more cost effective to charter the flight from Prague than for it to be sent by sea,” he said.

“It was a replacement purpose-built generator so it had to come from Prague and is about the size of a bedroom.

“The generator was trucked down to the power plant and will replace the old generator which is around four or five years old.”

The spokesman could not say what the cost of transporting the generator was because the power plant where the generator was required was owned by General Electric.

There were 21 crew on board the Antonov which stayed in Perth for 48 hours.