MANILA: A Filipino piloted the world’s largest passenger airplane that made its first landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Tuesday night.
Carrying 517 passengers, Emirates Airlines Airbus A380 Flight EK334 arrived at the NAIA at 10.15pm Tuesday.
The pilot of the huge aircraft is Capt Franklin Mallari Desiderio, who has been with Emirates for the last five years.
“I can’t describe how happy I am now,” Desiderio said about piloting the Emirates Airbus A380, which he described as a “flying gentle giant.”
Emirates Airbus A380 has a design range of 15,700 kilometres, sufficient to fly nonstop from Dubai to Los Angeles. It has a speed of Mach 0.85 or about 900km/h, 560 mph at cruising altitude.
The Philippine star
