‘Dream’ flight for aviation geeks
The prospect of being stuck on a plane for 24 straight hours is a nightmare scenario for most travelers. But that’s exactly what the passengers onboard Singapore Airlines Flight 8878 sought out.
The flight left Charleston, S.C., around 10:20 p.m. on Sunday night with 74 passengers and crew. It pulled into a gate at Singapore’s Changi Airport just before 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning. The trip — which included a two-hour technical stop in Osaka, Japan — clocked in at just about 24 hours.
It was the ferry flight for Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 787-10 “Dreamliner,” which the carrier took delivery of at Boeing’s assembly line in South Carolina. The “dash 10” is Boeing’s biggest Dreamliner, and Singapore became the world’s first carrier to get one.
But before Singapore Airlines can put the plane into service, it first had to get the plane to its home base.
The Charleston-to-Singapore delivery will go down as one of the longest that Boeing has ever made, said Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s sales chief for the Asia Pacific and India region.
“The significance for this is that it’s the first,” said Sam Chui, a Dubaibased aviation blogger. “There’s only one in the sky flying right now, and this is it.”
The enthusiasm was shared by the airline’s crew.
“Very privileged,” Singapore Airlines’ Capt. Bosco Xavier said.