SPOKANE, Wash. — You're used to seeing these standard-size commercial planes at airports that you might not even look twice if you saw one. However, you may have heard something much larger was in Spokane International Airport last month.
A plane with an extra-large delivery made a stop in Spokane. The Russian-built Antonov AN-124 was here for six days.
An airport spokesperson said the company that operates the monster-size plane rented a spot to park on the airport's property while it waited to pick up a cargo order in western Washington.
The cargo plane is second largest in the world, at 226-feet a with 226-foot long wing span.
Spokane International Airport shared this tweet after the plane arrived on March 21.
Not only is it large but it can lift huge amounts of weight too – 330,000 pounds, to be exact. The global chartering company contracts with businesses who need to transport large or heavy equipment for long distances.
A spokesperson for the airport did not specify what it was picking up but did say it transports large pieces of machinery.
"We came looking for the big Russian airplane, apparently it's pretty massive, larger than anything I've ever seen before," Ryan Delaney said.
Delaney and several people heard about the aircraft, and hoped to catch a glimpse of it before it took off.
The airport's operation department said the plane was parked here near the USPS processing center before it took off last week on March 27.
"I just couldn't imagine a huge airplane, so I wanted to see it in person to see how big it really was," Delaney said.
We tracked down the tail number and, according to Flight Aware, it's in New Orleans. According to the website, the plane was at Everett's Paine Field before it came to Spokane.
We aren't sure when the cargo plane will be back to the Inland Northwest but people KREM spoke to said they're used to seeing it at least twice a year.