On This Day 19th October 1988.

Either G-BJZD or G-GCAL, Douglas DC-10-10, Cal Air, the charter arm of British Caledonian, taking off from Runway 06 at Manchester Airport, 19th October 1988, as seen from the apron in front of the old South Side hangars at Manchester Airport.
There was an event on to celebrate the airport's 50th anniversary (the actual anniversary was months earlier, but they picked this date!), with the runway being shut for a short while to allow for some special visitors.
During World War 2, Manchester was known as RAF Ringway, and was home to the RAF's paratroop training school, amongst other things.
So it was decided that, to mark the anniversary, a mass para-drop would be organised, but this would mean shutting down the runway for half an hour, so they may as well make this a public occasion, and opened up the hangar area to the public.
They were planning on charging per car, and weren't prepared for the young idiot who had walked miles from the nearest bus stop, so let him in for free, because he obviously wasn't in a car!
This was the first time I had used a camera of my own (albeit a crappy 35mm compact) for plane photos, so the resulting images are a bit…
Let's just say they are here for historical purposes only, not for any artistic merit.
So, yeah, in anticipation of the runway being closed, everyone was trying to get out as early as possible, and one of those that managed to get out was this beauty, heading out to somewhere around the Mediterranean.

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway06 #SouthSide #Douglas #DC10 #CalAir #OnThisDay
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography