Iron Maiden’s tour plane ‘Ed Force One’ takes to the skies again

Boeing 747 was badly damaged during refuelling in Chile

Iron Maiden‘s tour Boeing 747 has taken to the skies again after the plane was badly damaged during refuelling at an airport in Chile.

Ed Force One’s undercarriage was damaged in the incident, while two airport workers were also reported to have been injured, earlier this month.

But according to a statement on the band’s official site ironmaiden.com, the plane took off at Santiago Airport to rejoin the tour at Brasília Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport this afternoon (March 22).

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It added: “The accident required the replacing of both of the Boeing 747’s port side jet engines, a tough proposition at the best of times but not made any easier by the fact of the distances involved in getting such huge components, parts, tools and technical crew to Chile as quickly as possible to get Ed Force One back in the air. The engines alone weigh 5000kg each, and cost around four million dollars each.”

NMEPress

Bruce Dickinson, Maiden frontman and pilot of Ed Force One, added: “The speed and thoroughness of this incredibly complex operation was stunning and we are so very pleased to get our plane back! We would like to thank Air Atlanta and their terrific rescue team for a fantastic effort in achieving this in the time they did, and to Boeing, LAN Chile. ACS and Rock It Cargo for all their invaluable support. We are sorry though for our fans in Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Rio and Belo Horizonte who missed out seeing the plane, but we hope they enjoyed the concerts as much as we did.”

Following the show at Nilsen Nelson Arena, the plane will be loaded up once again on Wednesday (March 23) to fly to Fortaleza for a concert on Thursday (March 24) and on from there to Sao Paulo and New York.

Iron Maiden are touring South America as part of the ‘Book Of Souls’ World Tour, which arrives in Europe via Asia, Australasia, Africa and North America in late May. They will headine Download Festival for their sole UK date on June 12.
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