The Turkish president Erdogan has received a very special gift from the royal
family of Qatar: a luxury Boeing 747-8I. The private device, which was
recently for sale, landed in Istanbul on Tuesday night.
 
According to Turkish media, Qatar would have given the Boeing as a gift out of
love for Erdogan and to emphasize the warm ties between the two countries.
Turkey and Qatar have known for a long time that they are good allies.
 
The Turkish opposition criticizes the new government plane: now that the
national economy is not performing all that well there should be cutbacks,
flying around with such luxury 747 would be inappropriate. There is also doubt
whether it really is a gift and not just a purchase.
 
Erdogan already has an Airbus A340-500, an A330 and an A318, among others.
With this last aircraft he landed first at the new Istanbul Airport at the
beginning of this summer.
 
The Boeing 747-8, with registration VQ-BSK, rolled off the belt at Boeing in
2012 and was then fitted with a VVIP interior. In 2015, the plane was handed
over to Qatar. On board there are facilities such as a large bedroom with king
size bed, a sitting room, a meeting room and a bathroom.
 
Normally, a Boeing 747-8i offers scheduled flights to around 450 passengers,
but the royal family from Qatar wanted to be more spacious. In addition to 76
seats for VIPs, there is room for eighteen employees.
 
On a side-note Qatar royals do more strange things. At times you can see an
Airbus A340 at the Missoula MT KMSO airport. It looks like a general Qatar
Airways passenger liner, but the inside is 100% VIP. It visits whenever the
emir or one of its male relatives want to visit a luxury "chicken ranch" in
the mountains. First they clear customs and immigration in a west-coast
mainport and then continue. Private helicopter or small plane then pick them
up.
 
For the uninitiated, a "chicken ranch" is another word for "luxury brothel".
 
 \%/@rd

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