Getting ready to say goodbye to a legendary queen of the skies............
City of Bangkok is the oldest Boeing 747 still in operation at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, as is a wonderful version of the iconic aircraft, often dubbed the Queen of the skies or more simply the jumbo-jet.
The Boeing arrived in Amsterdam from Seattle in 1989 and has, in the meantime, carried a considerable number of passengers. But now it’s time to say farewell. Boeing 747-400 City of Bangkok will soon fly its last flight after almost 30 years of faithful service, as Coco Peters reports.
I was lucky enough to be allowed to watch this “crate” undergo its final service. There is nothing better for an intern than to be allowed to nose around an aircraft. Every time I go into a hangar (I make it sound as if I go every week, but it was only my third time) my KLM-blue heart starts to beat a little faster. How bizarre it is that such an enormous machine can get up into the air. This aircraft weighs around 178,750 kilogrammes. It is completely empty now. Where there would normally be 408 passengers, plus cockpit and cabin crew, there is no one. The Boeing 747-400 is in Hangar 11 for maintenance, read on here.
