In what must clearly be a candidate for the shortest 747 flight in history an Ex British Airways Boeing 747-400 took off from Cardiff Airport and landed at MOD St Athan. A total distance of 3.67miles as the crow flies.
The ex BA bird reached the dizzying height of just over 3000ft on the flight which was also the last flight for aircraft.
The flight, which lasted just 14 minutes surpasses the mantle claimed by a Qantas 747 by 1 minute and clearly takes the crown from the aussie airline.
G-BNLX will now see out her days on the ground as a counter-terrorism and police training tool at MOD St Athan.
Has there been a shorter Boeing 747 flight? Let us know.
A Cathay Pacific B747-400,CX289 in the nineties got airborne from Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong and suffered an engine fire which did not extinguish. They were back on the ground within 9 minutes I think. But definitely inside the time of this flight!
A good point but technically it didnt fly anywhere as it was taking off and landing at Kai Tak. Criteria we think is a different destination to departure.
Virgin used to regularly position Its 747s between LHR & LGW of course that won’t happen any more – 15 at most ?
Close but these positioning flights were nearer 25-30mins once procedures were followed.
The 80’s a 747 landed in San Isidro Airforce Base in the Dominican Republic with 300 plus pax by mistake. It’s destination was just under 6nm from the airforce base ( Las Americas intl airport). It repositioned from the base to las americas. I believe it took just about 5 mins.
What a shame they weren’t on westerlies. THAT would have been a true contender.
In the late 1980’s, I once flew on a regularly scheduled 747 from Oakland CA to San Francisco, a distance of about 10 miles.