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".
 
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