Published 11:57 IST, July 23rd 2020
Australia's Qantas 747 flight draws kangaroo in the sky before retiring, watch video
Australia’s national airline Qantas bid farewell to the last Boeing 747 jumbo jet and to mark the occasion, the aircraft was used to carve a special message.
After almost 50 years of flying, Australia’s national airline Qantas bid farewell to the last Boeing 747 jumbo jet and to mark the occasion, the aircraft was used to carve a special message in the sky with its flight path. While taking to Twitter, Qantas shared a video of the passenger plane taking off from the Sydney Airport for Los Angeles and flight path tracing the logo of the airline’s iconic kangaroo in the sky. Flight QF7474, which is bound for retirement in the Mojave Desert, drew the special sign before leaving Australian airspace.
The company in a statement said, “The final 747-400 in the fleet (registration VH-OEJ) will depart Sydney at 2pm as flight number QF7474, bringing to an end five decades of history-making moments for the national carrier and aviation in Australia”.
According to a press release, Qantas’ 747s were first brought into operation in Australia in August 1971, which is the same year that the William McMahon became the Prime Minister, the first McDonalds opened in Australia and Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool topped the music charts. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce called the aircraft ‘well ahead of its time’ and ‘extremely capable’. She added that engineers and cabin crew loved working on jumbo jet and pilots also loved flying them.
Farewell of the ‘Queen of the skies’
To bid farewell to the plane, several Australians reportedly gathered at Sydney Airport. Boeing 747 also received a water salute before departure. According to an international media outlet, the plane was loaded with cargo bound for Los Angeles before the aircraft goes into storage at a boneyard in the Mojave Desert. The company said that the arrival and economics of the jumbo jet made international travel possible for millions of people for the first time.
Joyce said, “It’s hard to overstate the impact that the 747 had on aviation and a country as far away as Australia. It replaced the 707, which was a huge leap forward in itself but didn’t have the sheer size and scale to lower airfares the way the 747 did. That put international travel within reach of the average Australian and people jumped at the opportunity”.
As per the press release, the 747 is now being replaced by more fuel-efficient aircraft with better range, like the 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350. The company said that the fleet was set to be retired this year, however, the deadly coronavirus pandemic decimated travel globally, which moved up the retirement by six months. The last rescue missions the 747 flew for Qantas were t bring hundreds of stranded Australians home from the COVID-19 epicentre of Wuhan in February this year.
Updated 11:57 IST, July 23rd 2020