Yellow panther lands at Glasgow Airport

Monday 23rd January 2012

Glasgow Airport has unveiled details of a £1.8 million investment programme which will see it purchase three state-of-the-art fire appliances over the course of the next two years.

On Friday 20 January 2012, Glasgow became the first airport in Scotland to take delivery of a new Rosenbauer CA5 Panther fire appliance and Derek Mackay MSP for Renfrewshire North and West was on-hand to help mark the occasion.

The new Panthers, which were manufactured in Austria before being delivered to Glasgow, are at the cutting-edge of fire fighting technology and will form the centrepiece of the airport’s fleet of fire appliances. Glasgow Airport’s second appliance will arrive in June 2012 with the third arriving in early 2013.

Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: “Over the course of the past decade there have been huge advances in fire fighting technology and these new appliances will significantly enhance our current aircraft rescue and fire fighting capabilities. They are extremely sophisticated pieces of equipment and our staff will spend the next three to four months receiving extensive training before the first vehicle is put into service.”

The 34 tonne vehicles can carry 13,000 litres of water and 1,600 litres of foam and can accelerate from 0 to 80km/h in less than 32 seconds. The vehicle’s unusual and striking design recently caught the eye of Hollywood producers who cast the CA5 Panther as Sentinal Prime in the third instalment of the Transformers films – Dark of the Moon. 

Speaking at the official launch of the new fire appliance, Derek MacKay MSP said: “I would like to congratulate Glasgow Airport in securing these fantastic vehicles. The basic job firemen do every day is dangerous to begin with, and so these new and improved vehicles is a huge step forward in helping to respond safely and in a timely manner at situations arising at the airport.”

Glasgow Airport’s fire service fleet consists of five major foam tenders, two medium foam tenders and two shoguns.

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