I flew on the last B747-SP commercial flight in the world. It was operated by Iran Air from Tehran to Mumbai. The flight took place 8 years ago in April 2016…it was one of my golden memory flight.

My flight was off to an excellent start. I was invited to join the crew in the cockpit. The B747-SP took off with a beautiful Pratt and Whitney JT9D engine spooling sound. We climbed straight to 39,000 feet and later cruised at 41,000 feet with a speed of Mach .86. Our takeoff weight was 235 tons which is quite light. I had a chat with the friendly captain about the weather, fuel burn, and longevity of the SP. Iran Air did a good job maintaining it.

During the cruise, I went around the entire B747-SP main deck. There were 145 passengers mostly Muslim pilgrims returning to India. The main deck of the SP was massive. The Iran Air crew were some of the most hospitable crew in the world. We flew over Pakistan and entered India from the state of Gujarat. With a final landing in Mumbai, this ends my last commercial B747-SP flight. The last Iran Air B747-SP was operated by registration EP-IAC.