Lynden Air Cargo and Alaska West Express team up for shipment of wing section

Alaska West Express Driver Jerry Mandelke picked up this oversized 16-foot-wide wing section and delivered it to an airport in Arizona.

"The Lynden family of companies go far and wide to help each other out and this special project is proof of that," says Alaska West Express Dispatcher Mike Walls. The Alaska West Express team jumped in to assist Lynden Air Cargo with transportation of an oversized 16-foot center wing section in Arizona, doing some work behind the scenes to make the trip worthwhile for both companies since Arizona is not a normal trade lane for Alaska West Express.

"Our dispatchers were able to jump into action securing a last-minute load that needed to be in Arizona from right here in our own backyard of Tacoma," Mike says. "Once that freight was delivered, we moved the wing the following day. We found a backhaul of freight just 20 minutes away at Davis Monthan AFB which brought our driver home to Washington just in time for the holidays."

The oversize airplane wing required an Arizona Permit, a Special County Permit and pilot cars for the 47-mile trip. The special cargo required two large forklifts to load it on the trailer and a crane to put the wing inside a custom-built crate to handle the 16-foot wide and approximately 16,000-pound weight.

Lynden Air Cargo Special Projects Coordinator Gregg Thompson was onsite for the move. "The center wing was removed from Lynden aircraft N424LC," he says. "This was an aircraft we purchased from Safair, formerly ZS-RSG, that was ferried from Johannesburg, SA, to Coolidge, AZ, in February of 2023. This was the aircraft’s final flight." The wing was moved to the airport in Marana, AZ, to a climate-friendly storage location. It will eventually be sent to Singapore to be overhauled, and then installed when needed in another aircraft in Lynden Air Cargo’s fleet.

"The center wings have a 50,000-hour life limit, so this is just pre-planning to keep our airplanes flying as long as possible," Gregg says. Lynden Air Cargo has moved other wing sections over the years in a similar effort to reuse valuable portions of its aircraft.

"This move was a great example of green (Lynden) helping green," says Neil Cranford, Alaska West Express Tacoma Service Center Manager. "We have great drivers, great equipment and the experience to get the job done for any customer, but it’s even better when the customer is one of our sister companies."

The Tacoma Alaska West Express team is moving into a new facility near Tacoma. "We are right off I-5, which is a perfect location, with a large warehouse onsite where we can offer storage for other Lynden companies’ equipment or provide a place to work on equipment," Neil explains. "The new facility presents new opportunities for us to serve our customers and to support other Lynden companies."