A warm welcome to PH-BFR!

This aircraft is actually a Boeing 747-400 M, a passenger/cargo or "Combi" variant, to be precise. This specific aircraft type first flew on June 30, 1989, and entered service with KLM on September 12, 1989. It has a large cargo door fitted at the rear of the fuselage for loading freight into the aft main-deck cargo hold. A locked partition separates the cargo area from the forward passenger cabin, and the -400M also features additional fire protection, a strengthened main-deck floor, a roller-conveyor system, and passenger-to-cargo conversion equipment. The last 747-400M was delivered to KLM on April 10, 2002.

But back to our PH-BFR: Boeing built this airframe in 1993, with line number 1014 and manufacturer serial number (MSN) 27202, and delivered it to KLM in January 1994. It made its maiden flight on January 6. It had a C35 W36 Y197 configuration and was powered by four powerful GE CF6-80C2B1F engines. KLM registered it as PH-BFR and named it “Rio de Janeiro”. Did it ever make it to Rio de Janeiro, though? Probably, since the list of destinations it flew to is long: Los Angeles, Mexico, New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, Beijing, or Hong Kong, to name just a few.

In Hong Kong, Chek Lap Kok, she might actually have met her sister from Cathay Pacific - our popular B-HUI at the time.

On June 4, 2017, PH-BFR had an accident en route from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Hong Kong (China). At an altitude of approx. 9,000 meters, about half an hour before landing in Hong Kong, the aircraft encountered severe turbulence for a few seconds. Since the seat belt signs were not illuminated, some passengers were thrown against the ceiling and then back onto the floor. The crew informed air traffic control of injuries on board and requested emergency services and medical staff to meet the aircraft upon arrival. The “Rio de Janeiro” continued on to a safe landing in Hong Kong about 30-40 minutes later. A total of 9 people were assessed by medical staff at the airport, 8 of whom were taken to a hospital. Passengers later reported that the turbulence lasted 3-4 seconds and that everything not properly secured was thrown against the ceiling and then onto the floor.

A little later in 2017, on October 28, KLM retired PH-BFR after 23 years of service. On December 6, this queen of the skies made its last flight, flight number KL747. After a flight time of just 29 minutes, it landed in Enschede at 13:06. After landing in Enschede, it faced another “incident”: After safely slowing down on runway 23 and stopping at the end of the runway, three roe deer walked across the runway, eyeing the aircraft. The crew spotted the animals and greeted them warmly, too.

In August 2018, the dismantling of PH-BFR was completed, and the Boeing 747-400M was scrapped. We’ll share more insights into the final days of the “Rio de Janeiro” in a separate blog post, so stay tuned. In the meantime, did you get your Aviationtag yet?