STRANDED at the LEAST USED Airport in Mainland USA!

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This brought back some memories. I flew out of Alliance to Denver on a puddle jumper once. But back in the late 70's I used to get drunk with a friend and "someone" would steal the blue lights off the runway. Yes, you could just drive out onto the runway at night in the good old days. Damn I'm old.

👍︎︎ 13 👤︎︎ u/auntshooey1 📅︎︎ May 10 2021 🗫︎ replies

I’m curious what definition they’re using for “airport” because there are a lot of smaller towns than Alliance with airports that get used significantly less, i.e. Valentine, NE

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/NoBreath7036 📅︎︎ May 10 2021 🗫︎ replies

Hundreds of Millions are spent each year on the Essential Air Service that subsidizes these flights. Neat plane.

Edit: Specifically for these flights it looks like ~2.4 million granted this year.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Finnbjorn 📅︎︎ May 11 2021 🗫︎ replies
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- Come to Alliance, Nebraska and you can see Carhenge. Oh, it's not meant to be this cold. Why is it so cold? Well, good morning from the Gaylord Hotel here in Denver, Colorado. And it's actually really nice. It's a proper luxury resort. There's like snow tubing and ice skating and all sorts. And what's more, the airport is literally just over there. Today, we are leaving the Gaylord Hotel in Denver and heading to the least used airport in the whole of the mainland US. As airport hotels go, the Gaylord is a pretty decent one. I can actually see me bringing Mitch here for a winter getaway later in the year. I mean, this is just the lobby and they've even got a full size train in here. Denver Airport is absolutely huge. Just the drive in from the perimeter fence to the terminal building, it's over five miles and it takes 10 minutes to drive. So the least used airport in the lower 48 is a place called Alliance in Nebraska which is about an hour long flight from here. To get there, we have to take a ride with an airline called Denver Air Connection. On board a Swearingen Metroliner, they are very rare. Here in the US certainly it's the only chance you're going to get to ride on a Metroliner. - Okay, where are you flying today? - Alliance. - Okay, perfect. - I'm feeling slightly underdressed for Nebraska. - It's going to be cold - Yeah. - Okay, this is where I take your bag. Do you have any weapons or any - No. No, weapons, no. - Thank you. Boarding pass gate A64, we start boarding at 10:25. - Perfect. Thank you very much, have a great day. I was surprised at just how busy Denver airport was. This is hands down the busiest airport I've seen in a very long time. The security line was over 40 minutes long. Once I finally got through TSA, though, I was able to get on the little train to take me across to the gates. - Please keep clear and hold on for departure to all eight gates. - Yup, the little tune on the train was really cute. - Hold on, please. We are approaching the station. Please, watch your step. - All right, now is the point where I realize I need to come get something warm to wear in Nebraska because while it is minus 18 here, it's minus 30 in Nebraska right now in centigrade. This is sort of what I'm wearing. Yeah, let's get something warm to wear. That's got to be it, let's head to the gate. Yeah. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Have a good flight. - Thank you very much. See you later. My ride up to Alliance today, there was this uber cool Swearingen Metroliner delivered in 1997 to Hainan Airlines of China before going on to Bearskin Airlines in Canada in 2000 and finally onto Key Lime Air later the same year. Sorry, geeking out. Hey there, how are you? - How's it going? - Yeah, good, how are you? - Good and well. I can just have you sit behind that first seat right there, anywhere, it's fine. - Yep, perfect, thank you. - Yep, welcome aboard. - Thank you. Once onboard the cabin's in a one-on-one configuration with staggered rows, meaning alternate rows are missing a seat. This means for loads of leg room. I was joined on this flight by fellow aviation YouTuber, Zach from NYC Plane Spotting. I'll pop a link to Zach's channel on the screen now. All right, onboard Denver Air Connection Metroliner. Hmm, the leg room's not bad, is it? I'm on board with Zach. - How're you doing? - He's also flying to Alliance to fly on a Metroliner. He's come all the way from New Jersey to take a ride on it and so this is cool. - Guys, just a quick seatbelt check. Can you guys go ahead and just kind of tug on 'em for me? - So here we were then about to take to the skies in one of the rarest aircraft in the world. Just listen to that engine sound. I'll let you hear the whole thing. Our route up to Alliance today, then took us Northeast out of Denver to cross into the Nebraska panhandle landing into Alliance after a flight time of exactly one hour, cruising at 19,000 feet. So on board, the Metroliner heading to Alliance Nebraska. How flipping cool is this plane to ride on, man. The noise, the sound from those engines, just incredible. "The Flying Pencil", I think it has many names related to its long phallic shape. But I'll stick with the flying pencil because we're a family friendly channel on here most of the time. So yeah, about an hour's flight from here then in Denver up to Alliance, Nebraska. Alliance sees just two flights a day operated by Denver Air Connection on the Metro. We've got a night there tonight when we get there. So we'll be able to land, to have a look around. Tomorrow morning flying back to Denver again on "The Flying Pencil". The seats are in this staggered config where you have like an absolute ton of leg room in front of you. I mean, just look at that. Not far off a lie flat bed for a one hour flight. It's interesting, the age of the aircraft, it's a pretty old plane now. They've not made them in many years, but the chance to ride on one of these in 2021 is just insane. All too soon we're starting our descent into Alliance. Not that you'd know it by looking out the window. Believe it or not, we were on short final at this point, out of the window, just a sheet of white. Alliance was, let's just say, a little more remote and bleak than I've perhaps been expecting. It was minus 30 Celsius outside. At this point, I was starting to rethink my plans of walking the five miles to my hotel. There's no taxi service in Alliance, let alone an Uber, so I was starting to get a little bit worried. - All right, guys, welcome to Alliance. Can I just ask you remain seated a little bit longer, the captain will let you out. - That visibility didn't look great on approach. - Yeah, it was like a half mile or so. - Good job, dude. - I didn't know where to land. - I was going to say, how did you see? - down there, you know? It was down there somewhere but... - You did great. - I wish they'd have done at least one little plow to give me a strike but I saw... It was just trying to put it between lights. Thanks guys, you all ready? - Yep. - Thank you. - Come on out. - Hi. - I'm going to Minnesota, I'm used to it. - Yeah, you're used to it, you're good. Thanks guys. - Hey, I'm even crazier, I'm staying over tonight and then we go tomorrow, so. - Oh, good. Yeah, welcome, welcome. - Thank you very much. - See you later. - Thank you. - Thanks guys, appreciate it. - Thank you. - Thank you, ma'am, appreciate it. Thanks for flying with us. - You got a ride down to the wherever you're needing to go? - I haven't got a ride, no. - I can give you a ride if you need one. - Really, is that alright? Thank you so much, very kind of you. Thank you. - That way you don't have to f**k around. - Yeah, thank you. - You guys picked a hell of a day to fly. - Hey, I know, yeah. Well, hopefully it's no worse than this tomorrow, so. - No, it's supposed to be worse than this tomorrow. - Oh, is it? - Yeah. - Oh no, okay. - But I'm not flying tomorrow, so. - Oh, you're all right with that then. - Oh yeah, I'm good. - Thank you very much. As expected, the airport at Alliance is really tiny. There's just a small cafe and well, that's about it. There's no car rental either, which makes getting to your destination that little bit trickier. Alliance Municipal Airport was built during World War II and served as a base for over 14,000 paratroopers who went on to take part in the Normandy landings. Its first airline service was with Western DC-3s in the 1940s and Frontier also flew here with Twin Otters but they ended in 1980. In 2003, Great Lakes started serving Alliance once more with Beach 1900s as part of the essential air service. In the 12 months to the end of January, 2021, just 2,882 passengers flew through Alliance or roughly eight per day, coming in firmly as the least used airport in the lower 48, just below the second lowest, Glen Dive, Montana, which had 13 more passengers last year. So you guys, follow that guy. What's your Instagram? - JFK.spotting. JFK.spotting on Instagram, yeah? - Yeah. - Awesome. - Awesome meeting you. - Yeah, good to meet you too. - Have fun hopefully. - Enjoy your flight back to Denver, sir. - Thank you, thank you. - And hopefully I get back out tomorrow if the weather is getting worse. It was time to join my new friend for the drive in to Alliance. - Do you have any... Is it okay if we throw that in the back? - Absolutely, yeah, thank you. It's heavier. - Yeah. - You should crawl in there. - Perfect, thank you. - What's up, dude. - I just go on in here. - Do you have it? - Got it, thank you. - I got to give him a ride to your grandpa's hotel. - Okay. - So, well I think we'll drop you off first. - Yeah, lets jump. - This thing started huh? - Oh, yeah. - Where are you from, Australia? - England. - Holy Christ. - Yeah. - The hell are you doing out here? - So I'm a YouTuber. I make videos of my aviation and airlines around the world. So I came to fly on the Metroliner and also visit Alliance which is the least used airport in the mainland US. - This is? - This is, yeah. - Oh, wow. I'm telling you, we've got everything. - Yeah, absolutely. So I've got a night here and then hopefully back out tomorrow to Denver, yeah. - Oh, 24 below. - 24 below? - That'll make the old nut sack shrink, won't it? - Oh, yeah. - This is my cousin here. - Ah, okay. He lives just right over here in the big hill. - Okay. - So worked out then for us, he bought my Polaris and sh*t. So we're going to go drop him off, then we're going to drop my girlfriend off and then I'll give you a ride. - Awesome, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Alliance has a population of just 8,000 people. So what's it like living in Alliance, then? Is it a nice place to live? It is a good place. It's how you accept anywhere you know what I mean? - Yeah. - You can make it your home if you accept it. - Accept it, yeah. It's nice to see real America. - Oh, yeah. - We didn't get to see much, you know we get - You know, when you get into the big cities, I'm just going to tell ya, it gets kind of evil. - Yeah. - Okay? But you get into a small community, it's just more close, - Yeah. - You know? Small towns are more home. - Definitely. - In my opinion. - Definitely. - So this is like our little post office here. You know, we got a bunch of banks in this town. Another one, so hopefully we'll have a room. - Yeah. - Hey, how's it going? - Good, and you? - Good. This gentleman's wondering if you have any rooms available. - I do. I've got single king, got two queens, and my rate tonight's 95 plus tax. - That's absolutely fine. King is fine, thank you. - Okay. So I just need a form of ID and form of payment from ya. - Yeah, perfect, thank you. - And you're just looking at one night? - Just, well, hopefully unless the weather changes tomorrow and I'm stuck here. - Do you guys have any transportation for him to get to the airport tomorrow? - We do not. - Okay, so he'll probably have to call the airport. They can come and get him. - Okay. - Okay. - Yeah, I'm guessing that some taxis aren't really a thing here then. - Yeah, we're so small here and that's a bad thing. - Yeah. - You would think that the snow would let up here soon, but it just keeps looking like it's getting worse and worse every time you look out. - We just got back from Jamaica. So, huh, talk about a change, you know. - I was just saying I've been in Mexico for two weeks as well, so yeah. Hence why I'm dressed like this, you know. Thank you very much. - There you are. - I appreciate that, thank you. - Yeah, and if you don't have any problems with something, let me know. - Thank you very much. - It's only like eight miles from here. - Yeah, okay. - It ain't no big deal. - Well, here we go then. At Quality Inn, Alliance, Nebraska. Oh, this isn't too bad actually than I was expecting. Nice view. Over the snow, well, here we go. Great, thank you so much to Lanny and his partner for the ride up from the airport. Everybody's so friendly, I don't know... Everybody's so friendly here. I don't know how I would have actually got here without it. He said it's a good job he was there because there's no taxis here, there's no Uber here. And it's about a four or five mile drive into town from the airport. And in this weather, I didn't really fancy walk in it. So hey, I don't know how I'm going to get to the airport in the morning, that's another question. Or even if the flight is going to be going tomorrow because speaking to the pilot, the weather's closing in tomorrow and it's going to get any even worse. All right, so I've just had a phone call from the owner of the hotel who is also Lanny's uncle who's the guy that dropped me off here earlier on today. And he's going to take me for a tour of Alliance Nebraska. Good to meet you. - Harvey Schnell, pleased to meet you. - Hi, Harvey, nice to meet you. I think you're going to take me to see the best tourist attraction in Alliance then. - Yeah. - Well, we have some friends... Are you from London? - Yeah. Or just outside, like two hours. - It's outside of London? - Yeah. - We had some friends we met over there in '90... '95, I think is, guy by the name of Bob and Carol. - Right. - But it don't ring a bell to you. - Well, there's lots of Bobs at Carols yeah. Well, you lived out here all of your life then. - Well, I've been, I've lived here for 75 years. - Wow. - You must like here then, yeah? - Well... - It's home. - I don't know, World War II was still going on when we moved here and we're still here, so. - Oh, wow. Oh, would you take a look at this. This, well this is Carhenge and it's a replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of used cars. And it's the number one tourist attraction in Alliance, Nebraska. Look at that. How cool is that? There we go. Come to Alliance Nebraska and you can see Carhenge. There we go, the biggest grain elevator in Alliance, Nebraska. After the excitement of Carhenge and Alliance's largest grain elevator, we stopped at these grain silos, which I have to admit did look very similar to the last ones. It started to feel like we were running out of things to film. - You want to get a picture of some geese? - Ah, sure. - Okay. - Thankfully it wasn't long before things started to look up. We found a brewery. Let's go get this man a beer. - How're you guys? - Fine, how are you? - It's pretty good, thanks. - Loving this Nebraska weather. - It looks different, we haven't seen that for... - It's been a while. - It has been a while. - About six miles East of town. But we actually have a little more snow out there. - Well, I don't know, do you guys ever know T-bone? - T-Bone Rodjak? - Yeah. - I work with his son, Pork Chop. - Oh. - Here at the brewery, you can get draft beer to go which they come on the premises. As we headed back to the hotel, it was clear the weather had set in for the night. Wondering what the status is with that because we're getting quite a lot of snow up here tonight. It's still all going on tonight. Okay, great, thank you. Okay, so back in the my room, at the Quality Inn at Alliance, Nebraska and this snow is really coming down. All the guys in the bar were like, half of them were pilots, they're like, "Yeah, that flight is not leaving in the morning." Even getting to the airport, I mean, I spoke to the public transport company who are the only sort of people in the town who provide taxi services. There's no Uber, of course, there's no taxi here. And they were saying that until the roads get cleared in the morning there's no way on earth that they are going to be running. Oh, right, it is flipping freezing. We're down to minus 29 right now with a wind chill of about minus 40. This snow is just getting worse. They say we do have another sort of 10 inches tonight. So who knows if we're going to actually get out of here tomorrow? I don't know. It's not looking good, guys. It's not looking good. Have an Arby's next to the hotel. And I'm going to see if there's something else because I don't fancy that. Let's try and cross the street here without getting... Ooh, there's a McDonald's over there, there's a Maccas. Jeez, Louise it is flipping freezing. Oh my goodness. Oh, this snow is so deep, man. Oh God, I'm going to have to walk on the road. Hope I don't get run over. Oh my goodness. You know, just over a week ago, I got here from Mexico, it was plus 30. I liked that temperature. Here, it's minus 30. So I've dropped 60 degrees in a week. It's not meant to be this cold. Why is it so cold? I'm saying what, I'm certainly glad I bought this gear in Denver this morning. Right, so let's have a look at what we got here. Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Verizon Wireless and a Sam & Louies. That's better. Hmm, calzones, very nice. This is huge. Hmm, delicious-o. Right. Here we go. Sam & Louies pizza, really nice. Good bunch of people in there as well. Really nice pizza there. God, and then it is freezing cold out here. minus 30. I don't even know if I'm going to be back here tomorrow. I'm hoping to fly out at 6:00 AM now. So fingers crossed I get to leave and the flight goes and everything but this weather, man is, it's not looking good. Well, good morning from Alliance, Nebraska. It's 5:30 in the morning. My flight leaves in an hour, apparently. We've had a lot more snow overnight. I don't know if you can see out there, I don't know, it's sort of looking right now. But right now, there's probably about two feet of snow on the ground outside here, at least. But there is cars. I can see cars kind of moving up there. So maybe we'll be all right. Who knows if we're going to get out? I've got a Lyft coming from Lanny. Lanny, the guy who gave me a lift yesterday, his uncle, he's the guy that took me around on my tour of Alliance yesterday. And he's going to be taking me hopefully to the airport. Hello. - Good morning. - Good morning, how are you? - It's too early. - That it is. - Would you like a muffin? - I would always like a muffin. - We got double chocolate, blueberry and vanilla nut. - Blueberry, if you have one please, that'd be amazing. Thank you. There's cars on the road. So fingers crossed the roads are clear. - Oh, the planes are going. - The plane's going, yeah. It came last night, I saw. - Yeah. - So they say - One of my friends- - Thank you. - flew in on that plane last night. - You want me to heat it up for ya? Well, I think I'm good. I think I'm good. - Okay. - Yeah, one of my friends flew in on that plane last night. - Really? - I was like eew. - It was not good yesterday morning when we landed. You couldn't see the runway, it was just like white. The pilot was saying like, I just aimed for the lights and hoped that... Like down a slide. - And then it would slide off. - Yeah. - Oh, that's horrible. - So yeah. Oh, it's fun. It's fun. - Well, you fly safe. - Thank you very much. - Have a good day. - is out to ride off Hollywood ending Sunday. ♪ You've been saving for a rainy day ♪ ♪ Courtesy ♪ ♪ of the red white and blue. ♪ - You know, they keep the plane in here at night. - Oh, right, okay. - Just pull it round when it's time? - Yup. ♪ When you hear my freedom start ringing ♪ ♪ And it feel like the whole wide world ♪ - Thank you. Oh, there we go, sir, thank you. - Yeah. - Hey, take that. - Oh, no, no, no, no. - I insist, seriously. It's the least I can do. Well, after yesterday and today seriously. Get yourself some beers. - Well, thank you very much. - Good morning, how are you? - My apologies, let me get my mask on though. - Hi, Kathy, how are you? - Hey, how are you, sweetheart? - I'll bet you don't see this very often. - All right, I just need ID. - Yeah, I got it, thank you. - Did you fly in yesterday? - I did, yes. - He was the other plane enthusiast yesterday. - Oh my. - There were two of us, yeah. And I stayed over, and I wasn't sure we were going to get out today. - As far as we know, Denver's weather's good. So they got the runway plowed. - Yeah. - Denver weather... Good morning. - Pilot said it was better in Denver than here right now. - Is he the only one leaving this morning? - Well, he could be, because we're closing that counter in about three minutes. And he's the only one here, so. - There was another car pulled in, didn't it? - Oh, it did? - Another car pulled in in front of us. - Oh, good, then maybe someone else is here. - So maybe there's some... Yeah. - Yeah. - Well, I mean, anybody else booked? - Three people. - Three? - Yup, three. - Is one of 'em Ricky? - That's tomorrow. Is that tomorrow? - Yeah, tomorrow. - Tomorrow? - It's tomorrow, yeah. - Do you want to just do a plane side for that red bag? Let me check it. - Can I check it, please? Is that all right? Saves me... - Who are you flying with once you get to Denver? - Eventually United. - But not today? - Well, later on tonight. - Well, do you need... Okay, it's already been checked. We can check it all the way to your destination. - Can you? - Yes. - That'd be amazing in fact. - And then you don't have to worry about it at all. - That would be perfect. If you can check it through... - Put it on the scale board. And we'll check it all the way through. - Thank you. - Okay, it looks like you're... - Cheers, Harvey. Thank you so much, man. - Everybody's here. - You bet. - Appreciate it. - He's in good hands here. - Sorry? - He's in good hands here. - Oh, you bet your life. - This man has been looking after me. I got a tour of the lions yesterday, so. - That's nice. - Yeah. He's a good man, yeah. - It's good to be in his hands. - Thank you. - All right, sir, there you go. - Thank you very much. - Don't throw this away, because if you get home and you don't have your bag, - Okay. - That's how you're going to find it. - Perfect, thank you so much. - So keep that one. - Thank you. - You're welcome, thank you. - Cheers, Harvey thank you. - You bet. - See you in a month, thank you. Thank you. - I'll get out of the way here. - So we made it to Alliance Airport. And what a little place this is, the flight is going, as far as we know, the runways are plowed, we're ready to go. Alliance was actually, there was an army base here, and it was a Naval base, I think it was well back in the war as is the case with many sort of airports and they use these drones and things. Gliders. A lot of history here, actually for such a small town, they've got a lot of history. And the terminal building is effectively just like a house. Despite the friendly small town nature of Alliance, Apple there's still certain procedures that have to be gone through. - Oh I do, yeah. We have a mix. - And Denver law requires that each person wear a mask at all times throughout the flight. - Oh, sorry. - I'm sorry. - You all have a safe day. - Sorry, I've not had coffee yet. - Just rip it out from - Absolutely. Thank you very much. - You betcha, thank you for flying with us. - Thank you, maybe see you soon. - Safe travel. - Thank you, bye-bye. - All right-y. - My ride back to Denver was on exactly the same Metroliner that brought me over yesterday. - Thank you. - Good morning, sir. How are you? - Good, how are you? - I'm really good, thank you. - That looks very good. Thank you very much. - Thank you. - Anywhere behind row four would be great. - Behind row four. All right, thank you. - Yep. - Good morning. - Morning. - Regarding the safety features of Denver Air Metro liner. Above your seat, place the mask over your nose. Keep fastened all the time except when the seatbelt sign is off. And just to double check the seat belts really quickly. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. - So that was that then it was time to say goodbye to Alliance, the town I'd arrived in less than 24 hours ago but being treated just like one of their own. Our route back to Denver then took us Southwest out of Alliance and back into Colorado. Flight time today was one hour and seven minutes cruising at 20,000 feet. All right, so we took off. Yay. And we're on our way back down to Denver. This is such a cool little plane. I mean, there was no way on earth I thought we were getting out of there this morning. The state of the weather, the snow, the deep snow everywhere. And the fact that it's minus 30, doesn't seem to phase this aircraft at all, it is incredible. No de-icing needed. I'm guessing it's probably too cold to de-ice. That is often the case, but I'm not sure. There is a bit of ice build-up on the wing. About an hour's flight now back down to Denver, Colorado, we made it. You know what, when I decided to book a flight to the least used airport in the mainland US and see what was there, I have to admit I did not have a clue what to expect when I got there. What I found there was just the most lovely community in the middle of nowhere in the harshest of environments. This amazing incredible community who all look after one another, they all know one another and took me in like a member of their own family. Honestly, that to me is what small towns are about. And that is what life should be like, everybody just looking after one another taking care of one another and having everybody's back. You know what, I might never end up going back to Nebraska again. I might never meet Lanny and Harvey again and all the other people that made my trip here so special. But despite all of that, they've left a mark right just here on my heart. It is such a lovely place. And my time here really, well, I'm going to remember this forever. ♪ Didn't seem to do you any good ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I know you've tried so hard ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ I know you've done your part ♪ ♪ It's not fair, ♪ ♪ you did your time ♪ ♪ How much longer will you suffer in this life? ♪ ♪ But don't give up, just hold on tight ♪ ♪ It'll be alright ♪ I'd like to say a big thanks to my patrons as well today. You can join them at the link on the screen now to join my WhatsApp group and get access to my weekly Zoom call as well as loads of other benefits. - Thank you very much. - Come on in. - Thank you. Thank you. We made it back to the hustle and bustle of Denver International Airport. One of the busiest airports in the US. What an experience. That was an absolutely incredible time heading up to Alliance, Nebraska and back with Denver Air Connection on the Metroliner, such a cool plane. But also everybody up there in Alliance as well which was just an incredible experience. Thank you so much to everybody in Alliance, Nebraska who made my trip there really, really fun. It was great to meet you all and great to see the town and guys, if you want to go and check out Alliance Nebraska, go ahead. They have such a lovely bunch of people up there. And they'll be happy to have you. In the meantime, as always, thanks so much for watching. Take care and I'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.
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Channel: Noel Philips
Views: 512,206
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: noel philips, inflight video, flight review, alliance nebraska, denver air connection, fairchild metroliner, swearingen, swearingen metroliner, least used airport, least used airport in usa, usa least used airport
Id: 64DkJDCkIgE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 31min 51sec (1911 seconds)
Published: Sun May 09 2021
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