Iron Maiden announced that a fully repaired Ed Force One will take off tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday March 22, from Santiago Airport to rejoin the tour at Brasília Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport. Following the show at Nilsen Nelson Arena, the plane will be loaded up once again on Wednesday with over 20 tons of equipment and our tour personnel to fly to Fortaleza for the concert on Thursday and on from there to Sao Paulo then New York and onwards round the World on The Book of Souls World Tour which visits 36 countries in the five month period.
In Chile on Saturday March 12, Maiden’s 747 Jumbo Jet sustained major damage following an accident with a ground tug. 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.
Comments Bruce Dickinson, Maiden frontman and pilot of Ed Force One : “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.
We should also thank our Killer Krew who found themselves at lunchtime on the Saturday of the accident with over 20 tons of equipment at the airport in Santiago and over 60 people all to get to Cordoba for early the next day to set up the huge show we are carrying. The distance is “only” 1000km, but with a small matter of the Andes in between! They did it , by the skin of the teeth, and all went very well for the show in Cordoba and the other cities EF1 just missed. It’s quite a feat of logistics to find and put into action at such short notice all the transport, replacement air-charters, schedule flights etcetera to enable us to play those next four shows on time without EF1, our transport for everything. Great effort, team, many thanks from all of us. And to our promoter MOVE and ACS for all their assistance and time with this too“
Read the full details in their facebook post, below.