Photo: flightradar24.com
After 50 years of flying for Qantas, the Australian airline’s last Boeing 747 passenger jet made its final journey before being retired, and left a cute and fitting “message” in the sky.
Cases of pilots “drawing” stuff in the sky have been heard before, but it’s usually stuff that gets prudes blushing as they clutch their pearls. This wasn’t one of those cases: Qantas has a kangaroo as logo, and the pilot on Flight QF7474 honored the airplane’s long history with the airline by drawing one with the flight path.
This was Qantas’ last Boeing 747 and it’s been operating for 50 long years, during which it ferried over 250 million passengers, according to the airline. The final flight, from Sydney to Los Angeles, U.S., was commanded by Capt. Sharelle Quinn, the airline’s first female pilot who has also been flying it for the past 36 years.
All in all, it was a historic event. A large crowd gathered at the Sydney Airport for the final goodbye, and the jumbo jet received a water salute.
“This aircraft was well ahead of its time and extremely capable,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce says in a statement. “Engineers and cabin crew loved working on them and pilots loved flying them. So did passengers. They have carved out a very special place in aviation history and I know they'll be greatly missed by a lot of people, including me.”
QF7474 will spend retirement in the United States in the Mojave Desert, and Qantas will replace it with more fuel-efficient, better-range aircraft, like the Airbus A350 or 787 Dreamliner. A classic case of out with the old, in with the new.
“It has been a wonderful part of our history, a truly ground-breaking aircraft and while we are sad to see our last one go, it's time to hand over to the next generation of aircraft that are a lot more efficient,” Captain Quinn says in the same statement.
This was Qantas’ last Boeing 747 and it’s been operating for 50 long years, during which it ferried over 250 million passengers, according to the airline. The final flight, from Sydney to Los Angeles, U.S., was commanded by Capt. Sharelle Quinn, the airline’s first female pilot who has also been flying it for the past 36 years.
All in all, it was a historic event. A large crowd gathered at the Sydney Airport for the final goodbye, and the jumbo jet received a water salute.
“This aircraft was well ahead of its time and extremely capable,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce says in a statement. “Engineers and cabin crew loved working on them and pilots loved flying them. So did passengers. They have carved out a very special place in aviation history and I know they'll be greatly missed by a lot of people, including me.”
QF7474 will spend retirement in the United States in the Mojave Desert, and Qantas will replace it with more fuel-efficient, better-range aircraft, like the Airbus A350 or 787 Dreamliner. A classic case of out with the old, in with the new.
“It has been a wonderful part of our history, a truly ground-breaking aircraft and while we are sad to see our last one go, it's time to hand over to the next generation of aircraft that are a lot more efficient,” Captain Quinn says in the same statement.
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