It’s Friday the 13th, y’all! Hey, did you ever hear of the ULTIMATE Friday the 13th event that an airline pulled? It’s really creative and well-done :-). Check this out…
First, a few bits of history…
- Founded in 1923 as Aero, Finnair is one of the oldest operating airlines in the world. It began flights in Helsinki in 1924, first as mainly a mail carrier, but following the completion of World War II, began regular commercial flights for passengers. One of its flights, from Copenhagen to Helsinki, has been running since 2006.
- People have had negative superstitions about Friday the 13th for centuries, to the point that two pretty long words — paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia— describe a fear of this supposedly unlucky day.
- As per Wikipedia, The Number of the Beast is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that’s associated with the Beast of Revelation in chapter 13 (ETA: there’s that 13 again). In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the beast is 666.
Got all of that? OK, good. Now back to aviation…
Since 2006, Finnair’s Flight 666 flew from Copenhagen (CPH) to Helsinki (HEL) 21 times on Friday the 13th (you see where I’m going with this, right?). However, the airline’s flight on Friday, October 13, 2017 was its final one for that date under that number, as Flight 666 finally became Flight 954 later that month, in response to the airline’s growth and need for more flight numbers. But the aviation world gave it a send-off like no other.
Hi there! We have something better in opur mind: our heavy metal themed bus will give one HEL of a ride for #AY666 passengers! pic.twitter.com/Ai8FVqv4qq
— Helsinki Airport (@HelsinkiAirport) October 13, 2017
It's 13 o'clock on Friday the 13th and @Finnair flight 666 is getting ready to fly to HEL https://t.co/ZAB2dO7aof pic.twitter.com/9PHZmGAOdM
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 13, 2017
There was also the guy in the 13th row who apparently missed this historic final flight…
Fortunately, the flight arrived with no problems and even landed 2 minute early!
#AY666 arrived in HEL! Luckily we managed to get the gate arrival in the end, and as we do things double-well here, the gate is 13+13=26!
— Helsinki Airport (@HelsinkiAirport) October 13, 2017
✈️️ Finnair flight 666, at 13 o'clock on Friday the 13th with a 13 year old aircraft, has landed safely in HELhttps://t.co/0kWfkcARmO pic.twitter.com/OPvpyyq4F4
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 13, 2017
Partly sunny weather at #HEL welcomed our flight AY666 from Copenhagen. pic.twitter.com/40XiUpV9fm
— Finnair (@Finnair) October 13, 2017
They even recorded the entire final flight for posterity…
Unfortunately, Helsinki didn’t have their famous November 2016 congratulatory tourism poster flying that day. Pity.
FWIW, Finnair’s hellish sense of humor won’t end quite yet. “Farewell to Finnair AY666,” they Tweeted, “but remember, we still have flights from SIN to HEL,” SIN refers to their flights in and out of Singapore ;-).
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
