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Final flight goes "Top Gun" and does a tower fly by.

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Final flight goes "Top Gun" and does a tower fly by.

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Old Oct 18, 2017, 8:44 am
  #1  
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Final flight goes "Top Gun" and does a tower fly by.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-41664894/air-berlin-plane-does-lap-of-honour-in-dsseldorf

Aparrently the pilot is suspended but buzzed the terminal.
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 9:09 am
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Assuming, of course, that they weren't told beforehand, this must have been pretty frightening stuff for some of those passengers. Especially if they knew this was the last longhaul flight (which they probably did). The might well have thought that the pilot had lost his job and decided to go 'off on one'!

That said, I would have loved to have been on that plane.
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 9:22 am
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Do we have ATC communications somewhere? I wonder if this was agreed on with ATC - if not, this was one hell of a dangerous manoeuvre..
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 9:31 am
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The words 'investigation' and 'suspension' being reported suggests that this wasn't a clever manoeuvre.
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 9:43 am
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I assume that (1) this maneuver was not coordinated with ATC (or anyone else for that matter) and (2) it would never have been approved beforehand.

If even one of these assumptions is correct, then the pilot(s) should never be allowed to fly again (and, hopefully, their drivers' licenses will be pulled as well - not uncommon in Germany). Airshows are dangerous, accidents have happened, and here these guys decide on the fly to create their own impromptu airshow (with none of the planning and coordination that goes into airshows). With a plane full of pax. Unbelievable.

Does anyone know why the parallel thread on Pprune was pulled almost immediately?
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 10:04 am
  #6  
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Two more videos on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKfo1We2YHE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-bZaghb1CU

tue second one seems to be the tower and they get applauded so perhaps notification was given. Not necessarily granted mind you
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 12:09 pm
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OMG there were passengers on that flight? I had no idea, I thought it was just a 'farewell' move as they parked the jet pending dissolution of the company.
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 12:20 pm
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Coordinated by the tower and passengers where informed, so must have been a great flight.

From inside the plane (not mine)
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 12:25 pm
  #9  
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Well, at least it ended better than this fly-by from "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." (That's Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett at the plane's controls, with a passed-out Jim Backus in the back of the plane. Paul Ford is at the microphone in the control tower, assisted by Carl Reiner and Jesse White.)

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Old Oct 18, 2017, 2:15 pm
  #10  
 
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haha suspended from a dissolved airline?

Go around and left turn. Passengers briefed, ATC approved, everyone loved it. Non event... move on.

However wasn't the Cathay/Emirates (i forget) chief pilot sacked for doing something like this when the CEO was on board a while ago on the delivery flight from Seattle (where its usual to do a fly over/go around) due to insurance reasons..?
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 4:29 pm
  #11  
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When I watched the video on Spiegel the plane seemed to bank to the left and I was wondering how high above the ground the plane was at that point. The wing seemed to dip down a long way, but maybe my sense of perspective was out by a big margin.
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 5:18 pm
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Lol he buzzed the tower! Manouevre looked
complefely safe and well planned! I wish I was on that plane , would have paid to be on the plane for that one! Complete non event, the fake news media are so miserable !
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Old Oct 18, 2017, 11:54 pm
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Airports and planes are not a playground. And pilots who take themselves more important than their passengers don‘t belong in a cockpit.

So much about that the bankruptcy has nothing to do with the staff.
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Old Oct 19, 2017, 12:40 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by smala01
haha suspended from a dissolved airline
The pilot might not be in a so hilarious mood, if the "suspension" means the suspension of his licence.
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Old Oct 19, 2017, 2:59 am
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Interestingly, the aircraft that flew the final flight from Miami is no longer listed as an AB aircraft, but as owned by GECAS (an aircraft leasing company):

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/d-abxa

Correspondingly, D-ABXB is with BCI Aircraft Leasing, and D-ABXG was flown from DUS to SNN two days ago https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/d-abxg and is now listed with Avolon.
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