Peoria Station

PEORIA – I didn’t know about it until after dark, so I didn’t get any good pics. I’m not sure I could have, though, had I saw it in daylight – it was parked on Runway 4-22 facing northeast. WMBD-TV Channel 31 did get some video of the aircraft parked at the airport. (I should note that two mistakes are made, first, the aircraft was built by the then-Soviet Union, but post-collapse is Ukrainian. Finally, the airport director’s last name is Olson, not Wilson.)

I did get up early Sunday morning to watch the plane take off down Runway 31 toward the northwest. Unfortunately, the sun hadn’t found Peoria yet so all I managed to get was runway/taxiway lights and the aircraft’s own lights. The aircraft made a fuel stop at Ontario, California before heading to Honolulu, Hawaii, then Pago Pago, American Samoa.

- David P. Jordan