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With
May came the return of good weather and the final month of operation for
the Air France Concorde. May 31st was the appointed date and it would
quickly arrive. There wasn't much time. We missed the first two weeks
due to our trip to England and Ireland and with a busy work schedule it
made it even more difficult to get over to JFK those final weeks. But
we managed to make it one beautiful day, May 18th, and got something totally
unexpected. It was one of those rare days when JFK was using the 04 runways
for departures and arrivals. In good conditions Concorde was not allowed
to depart using the 04L runway because of noise abatement procedures.
That meant she would either takeoff on 31L and we wouldn't get good pictures,
or she would take off into the wind using 22R. We all hoped for a 22R
departure and, this day, we weren't disappointed. We saw her line up at
the far end of 22R and heard JFK Tower hold the traffic for her departure.
It was beautiful. In fact, this was the one day where we managed to photograph
all four Concorde operations. Beautiful!
Enjoy the pictures ...
AB-C-015 Air France F-BVFB May 18, 2003
AB-C-016 Air France F-BVFB May 18, 2003
AB-C-017 Air France F-BVFB May 18, 2003
AB-C-018 Air France F-BVFB May 18, 2003
AB-C-019 Air France F-BVFA May 18, 2003
AB-C-020 Air France F-BVFA May 18, 2003
AB-C-021 Air France F-BVFA May 18, 2003
AB-C-022 British Airways G-BOAG May 18, 2003
AB-C-023 British Airways G-BOAG May 18, 2003
AB-C-024 British Airways G-BOAG May 18, 2003
AB-C-025 British Airways G-BOAG May 18, 2003
The closer the last day came, the more turnout we had. Pictured l to r: Mike Primamore (NJ), Alex (Russia), Yevgeny (NY), Jin (Jean) Nakashima (Austin & Japan), Ben Wang (CA), Art Brett (NJ). Photo by Anne Brett.
AB-C-026 British Airways G-BOAE May 18, 2003
AB-C-027 British Airways G-BOAE May 18, 2003
British Airways G-BOAE May 18, 2003
May
18th was a truly spectacular day. Not only were the skies a beautiful
blue with wispy white clouds, but the winds and controllers in JFK's
tower were favorable. To catch all four Concorde operations in a single
day was unusual and truly a feast for us all.
Our next visit would be May 30th, the next to last day for the Air France Concorde. There would be a normal departure for Paris and then the last inbound Concorde from Paris in scheduled commercial service. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative for the inbound shot leaving us only with the next-to-last departure that day.
AB-C-027 Air France F-BVFA May 30, 2003
AB-C-028 British Airways G-BOAD May 30, 2003
The pictures from the 30th weren't great. The haze was pretty bad and really limited the quality that you could get. But we were all happy to be there and watch this bird one more time. We looked forward, with reluctance and sadness, to the last departure and the end of commercial Air France Concorde service the next day. Unfortunately things got worse.
Arriving at JFK early the morning of the 31st we found heavy overcast, haze and light showers/mist in the air. Not good for taking pictures at all and to further complicate things they were again using the 04s for departures and arrivals. Now it's a crap shoot ... do we go to Bayswater and hope for a 22L departure or Howard Beach and hope for a 31L departure. We elected Bayswater. At Bayswater we'd be very close if she departed 22L, and if she departed 31L we'd still manage to get a picture. If we went to Howard Beach our only hope would be if she departed 31L because if she went 22L we wouldn't get any photos at all. So we waited and hoped at Bayswater for a 22L departure. Unfortunately that's not what we got.
Sorry it looks as though the AA flight is getting the water cannon salute, but it's really the Air France
Concorde on the right. We were so far away it was a waste shot, but it's still something for us to
remember her by.
AB-C-029 Air France F-BTSD May 31, 2003
departing 31L at JFK climbs out over an American 777 waiting to depart 4L.
AB-C-030 Air France F-BTSD May 31, 2003
departing 31L at JFK climbs out over an two jetBlue A320s waiting to depart 4L.
AB-C-031 Air France F-BTSD May 31, 2003
departing 31L at JFK climbs out over a jetBlue A320 taxiing into position on 4L. Capt. John Washington, pilot
of the jetBlue A320, contacted me regarding this picture and it was selected for the cover shot of
jetBlue's quarterly pilot's magazine in July 2003.
The Bayswater Good-bye Group
Not sure why, but the group was rather small. Perhaps it was the weather. Perhaps others went to
Howard Beach, or maybe some were just mad at the French because of Iraq. Who knows! But we were there.
L to R: Ed, Mike Primamore, me, Mike McLaughlin, Sunil Gupta, not sure and Fernando.
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