An elephant, and it isn't Dumbo, flies over Disneyland

ANAHEIM – There it was, an elephant flying a few hundred feet above Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Only this was not Dumbo, it was an African bull retuing to her place at the Jungle Cruise.

The elephant, an audio-animatronic figure, normally sits on the banks of the Nile River in the Disneyland attraction, but in January her neck broke.

She and a pretend python in a fake tree were both flown into the jungle Wednesday moing before the park opened.

The python, which wiggles its head, was first installed in the 1980s but needed a new eight-foot-tall tree to slither in. The full-size elephant first took to the jungle in 1950s.

“It’s kind of awesome to make an elephant fly,” said pilot Ken Krauss of Blackhawk Helicopters, based in El Cajon.

Normally, Krauss flies loads such as large buckets of wet concrete, heating/air-conditioning units placed atop buildings, or water to be dropped onto fires. This time, he had to navigate about a man-made jungle’s trees.

He is a pro at moving the elephant – he has moved it a couple of times before for repairs.

A ground crew, talking with the pilot via radio, helped place the figures.

“I go, ‘Whew,’ and I’m done,” Krauss said.

During the ongoing, four-month refurbishment of the attraction that opened on Disneyland’s first day in 1955, only the elephant and the snake-in-the-tree were airlifted, said Veronica Wyant, a senior plaer with the Disneyland Resort.

The Jungle Cruise is set to reopen May 6.