Guernsey Press

Plane-pull teams put back into it for good causes

STRONG men and women managed to pull a 13.5-tonne ATR 72 in teams of 10 in Saturday evening’s Aurigny aircraft haul.

Published
Team Civil Protection with Tony Rive at the front. (Pictures by Steve Sarre, 21813485)

In aid of the Friends of Sri Lanka and Channel Islands Air Search charities, it was a first as a competitive event held at the airport. It was based on a similar event last held in 1988 when a team of 60 pulled a similar aircraft along the entire runway.

The event has been held this year in celebration of the company’s 50th birthday.

Some of the eight teams, which took part on Saturday evening included Guernsey Police, Crossfit, Norman Piette and the Hampshire Lodge. Each pulled the plane a distance of 50m near to the Anglo-Normandy hangar.

Landlord of the pub, Peter Leigh, said his team, Hampshire Hairlines, had honed their skills by pouring and lifting pints to give them an advantage on the day and had a special reason for taking part.

‘It’s the first time it’s been done for a while, so we were happy to take part. We were asked if we wanted to do it because our chef is from Sri Lanka. We’ve joined up with a team from Bedell Cristin. We’d like to thank all the organisers, because it must take some doing. We’ve raised around £400 so far for a good cause,’ he said.

All of the teams began with a joint warm-up before taking hold of a rope attached to the plane. Hampshire Hairlines set the best early time of 30.04 sec.

A team from Norman Piette went on to complete the run in 29.28 seconds. Team member Kyran Perkins said he was in daily training for the event in his job of lifting cement.

‘It’s two really good charities and the company have offered to match the individual sponsorship that we raise, we are quietly confident, but there is a lot of competition.’ he said.

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