Today is the 100th anniversary of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (which took place on April 23, 1920), and Turkish Airlines is celebrating this in a special way.
Today a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER completed a 2hr38min flight over Turkey, flying from Ankara to Ankara. Flight TK1920 spent the entire journey “drawing” the biggest-ever national flag in the sky.
Here’s a look at the Flightradar24 map from the flight.
How cool-looking is that?!
It’s not known if there was another purpose for this flight (like crew training or aircraft testing) and they just flew this special path, or if this was purely to celebrate the occasion, in which case it’s obviously rather costly and not great for the environment.
This isn’t the first time a plane has “drawn” something in the sky like this. To give a few other examples:
I really loved the idea. For those who complain about the fuel, are ridiculus to me, since the fuel that was spent wasn't even an ounce of what they use daily in normal times. If it was their own flag, they would have loved the event too :) Ne mutlu Türküm diyene
This is not even a drop in the ocean compared to all the near empty flights operating in the US at the moment. At least TK did something nice and unusual with the fuel they wasted.
Surely it's not the best time for those initiatives, considering that the aviation sector is one of the most affected by the pandemic of COVID-19. It wasn't the best marketing move they have chosen.
Great contribution to the 800 degree increase in temperature we have experienced thanks to climate change. We are literally turning our planet into Venus while they are making pretty patterns in the sky
To be fair the flight could have been needed for maintenance reasons.
We don't know the basis here. Certainly not a fan if it was just done for that, but there are also legitimate grounds it could have been operated anyway. No way to know.
Missed opportunity.
Erdogan letting his servants draw a pic of his d**k in the sky... At least they got it right, so curvy that it is not useful.
Why would they use a 777 for this? Couldn’t they use their more efficient 787 or a smaller plane?
@M not a surprise, it's the Turkish government we're talking about here
Glad to see that money they refuse to refund me for my canceled flights is being put to good use
Better ways to mark the event. Turkish is a lovely airline, it's a shame the current government is so oppressive and against press freedom and individual Turkic freedom.
@NSS + @M
With negative oil prices, Turkish could have made a quick buck with this ;) SCNR
Well oil is ridiculously low right now... Now’s the best time to do it if you’re gonna do it.
I'm with NSS here. Airlines are suffering, unemployment is way up and burning fuel during a pandemic...who thought this was a good idea?
Excellent use of fuel and making people work during a global pandemic. But yay national pride.