How the Patriots operate AirKraft | Do Your Job: Patriots Team Plane

this is your uh special teams captain speaking welcoming you aboard the aircraft looks like we'll have clear skies on our trip today so get comfortable grab a few snacks and we'll be taking off shortly [Music] air craft a 767 jumbo jet flying the friendly skies for over four years now its origin was born out of necessity [Music] the idea of of owning our own plane you know really started in 2015 or 2016. and so as we and other teams felt the stress of of getting the proper equipment to get the team to the most important thing the game we said why don't we solve it ourselves at the beginning of the process we needed to find a partner in the airline industry who had the expertise to put a plane together and also to operate a plane so when we started this project we said we're not going to change any structural components so we left the you know all the cabin dividers in place we left the bathrooms in place but then we stripped everything else you know we stripped carpets we stripped you know the overhead bins we stripped seats from an aesthetic and a comfort perspective we built it back up from the inside [Music] to make sure it's good for a football team [Music] we started by saying is what what should the layout of the plane be the 767 we have typically carries 260 people but since we didn't have a need to travel 260 people we wanted to utilize the space on the plane to give more space for people i think the most interesting thing is is the configuration inside the airplane and how it's laid out and how everything is this particular catered to a football in the industry they call it pitch so the more pitch you have the more leg room and we wanted to have a plane that where a player a tall player sitting in the plane was comfortable from a leg perspective when we purchased the seats for this plane we wanted to purchase seats that were the widest possible if you're a 350 pound offensive or defensive lineman sitting in a regular seat on a regular plane really doesn't work we wanted it to be as state of the art as possible from an in-flight entertainment perspective but having the screen in the seat back in front of you and then having a wide range of movies shows music that the players and the coaches and the and the rest of the travel party could enjoy while they're on the trip [Music] it's the new england patriots playing we wanted to you know wear our colors with pride on the outside uh so our design team at craft sports and entertainment work to create the design with planes use only certain places that can can create the decals can paint the plane so there was a whole process near the end where where the entire plane had to be painted first white and then the colors on top of it and then lastly where you see logos and lombardi trophies those are actually decals we added a six lombardi trophy actually now 18 months ago we added another logo telling people to get vaccinated because we think that is critically important to our society and we wanted to put that on our plane let's go with 3963 contact departure for us eastern airlines manages all of the what i would call it plain logistics things can change things can come up a moment's notice we could change a schedule something's going on so we have to delay the lay the plane a little bit to make the needs and adjust everything accordingly and i think that's really the big unique part of this from the maintenance of the plane to the piloting and the crewing of the plane to fueling the plane to getting catering on and off the plane but with with the patriot organization i have to be even be more adaptable and more flexible in how we operate the airplane and to take care of any kind of issues that arise so on a road game i'm constantly in communication with eastern in communication with the bus companies with the hotels just having backup plans on backup plans eastern always lets us know well ahead of time hey we're on time hey we're running five minutes late hey we're five minutes early um food's here the caterers here getting the equipment on and off the flight one it depends on where we're playing if it's warm weather cold weather if it's inside if it's outside that will really kind of determine which equipment we bring how heavy it is and then i'm working with eastern to calculate all the weights and balances get that loaded up onto the plane so it's all ready to go if we planned it right we just need to arrive at the plane and then they manage everything else for us the airplane's always at the ready it's at a vip level it's constantly clean and it's in utmost condition it has to be ready on the go all the time it's a better experience it's just it's a more comfortable experience that you have room to sit you have room to maneuver and it truly represents the patriot organization when we walk in and see we are all patriots that just just makes makes it special only having one plane would force us to rely on outside parties mr craft was very smart he took two seven six seven three hundreds one is a backup spear airplane we always took what we call the main plane but the second plane was always ready to fly it was crude it had pilots it had flight attendants um it was fueled it was ready to go to support the operation so every time we traveled we had two planes ready to go even though we were only operating one one of the ancillary benefits of having your own plane it's allowed the craft family to use it for good one such example um you know which has been well publicized is uh is our trip to china to get masked [Music] you know here in massachusetts we've seen time and again that we work best when we work together jonathan honestly we can't thank you and your dad and your family enough for answering the call and helping make this happen [Music] to be able to bring you know 1.1 million mass back on our plane at a time when no one could get them was incredibly rewarding and if you don't have your own plane it's not even you don't even start a discussion one year ago as a way to say thank you to the hard-working men and women on the front lines the craft family flew 76 healthcare professionals to super bowl 55 in tampa [Music] it's just been a very trying year so i was really excited for this this is truly truly amazing i'm so grateful to the craft family [Applause] championship programs attract other championship programs just ask the boston renegades women's tackle football team we'd like the privilege of flying you on our patriot team plane [Music] [Applause] it's been really rewarding you know not only to move the team uh but also to be able to to help with the mission to help others wherever we go people turn their heads you see the airline employees when they're working they stop what they're doing they take their cell phones out and they're taking pictures everywhere just amazing how much this airplane attracts a true patriot fan they're always more asking what they're playing and what it's about it's an amazing airplane it really is in an average season aircraft one travels 44 hours in the air and racks up over 17 000 air miles all of it done with one mission in mind to transport the team to the opponent city in the safest most comfortable and efficient way possible now if you'll excuse me this is your special teams captain speaking next stop you

Channel: New England Patriots

Views: 270,692

Keywords: New England Patriots, NFL, Patriots, Team plane, Plane, do your job, airkraft

Id: 4BPY-iZb7gE

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022