Woman in Window Seat Stunned As World’s Largest Passenger Plane Flies By

A video of a passenger marveling at “the coolest plane spotting experience” on a recent flight has gone viral on TikTok.

A message overlaid on the video by @lifeabroad1, which has amassed a million views since it was shared around September 4, reads: “I can’t believe this just happened during my flight.”

The footage shows a view through a plane window with an aircraft speeding past above clouds in the distance. A subsequent message across the screen says “Emirates A380 passing by full speed 37K [37,000] feet above the ground.”

According to later comments by the poster, the moment was captured “somewhere above Germany” on a flight from Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, to Dubai around 4 p.m. on September 3″ and it “all happened within five seconds.”

The Emirates A380 plane is said to be as long as two blue whales and as tall as five giraffes, weighing between 510 and 575 tonnes, according to the airline.

Described as “the world’s largest and most spacious aircraft” with the capacity to seat more than 500 passengers, the A380 has flown over 800,000 flights and carried more than 300 million passengers since it first entered service, according to Airbus, the European manufacturer.

The aircraft made its first commercial flight back in October 2007 with a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. While the airliner is expected to fly for decades, its production has come to a close, with the last A380 delivered to Emirates in December 2021, which marked the manufacturer’s 251^st A380 delivered to date.

Having received 123 A380 aircraft over the years, Emirates has been one of Airbus’s biggest A380 customers.

The Airbus website explains that the A380 was launched in response to airport congestion in a bid to have a plane capable of serving global hubs, “an ambition shared by Emirates, whose unique geographical position allows them to connect Dubai to all the world’s airports such as Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Singapore or Sydney, creating the possibility to fly more than 500 passengers around the world on one aircraft.”

The viral post comes as Airbus aircraft deliveries were reported to have dropped last month following a rise in July, the company said on Friday. The manufacturer delivered 47 aircraft, a decline from the 77 planes delivered in July, marking a total of 447 aircraft delivered to date this year.

‘So Cool’

In a caption shared with the viral video, the poster explained: “This happened during my flight today! The largest passenger airplane Airbus A380 by Emirates passing by my plane full speed at the altitude of 37k feet above the ground (11km)!

“It was a quick moment, so I had to take out my phone and start recording with the speed of light! The plane was still far away but its gigantic size just makes it seem like it is so close to our aircraft! Well, this is how the A380 looks like in the air! What a day! Definitely the coolest plane spotting experience from the plane.”

Users on TikTok were blown away by the plane spotting moment in the viral clip.

Taimoor Khan89296 noted: “You are so lucky,” and iris wrote: “That’s so cool.”

User @mystory.z33 wrote: “wow amazing. I never saw other planes while I’m on a flight,” and imranali63 said: “Wow so beautiful.”

“That’s crazy, I saw this over Germany as well, flying to Greece!” noted kieranw.

User @amggirl63s said: “wow, that plane was really flying fast.”

Helen T wrote: “One of my favorite things to see when I fly. Makes you realize how fast aircraft are flying.”

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

Do you have a travel-related video or story to share? Let us know via life@newsweek.com and your story could be featured on Newsweek.