April 5 - Volga Dnepr Airlines has completed an urgent delivery from Stuttgart to Japan of a large pump to help in the cooling of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Among the 60 tonnes of equipment was a truck-mounted pump produced by German-based Putzmeister, which has a 62 m boom, enabling it to discharge water over the edge of the reactor buildings and into the buildings from above. The pumps may also be used for any necessary concreting work.

On arrival onboard one of Volga-Dnepr's AN-124-100 freighters at Tokyo's Narita Airport, the equipment was transferred to the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

In the next few days, Volga-Dnepr Airlines will deliver three more pumps to Fukushima from Stuttgart, Atlanta and Los Angeles using An-124 'Ruslan' freighters.