Emirates did it again. After the airline put a flight attendant at the top of the world’s tallest building in August 2021, the Gulf airline repeated the feat; not only that, but it also did it by accompanying the flight attendant, who was actually a stuntwoman called Nicole Smith-Ludvik, with an Airbus A380.
In a video shared by Emirates on January 14, we can again see the woman in her stewardess uniform at the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. At a height of 828 meters and in a space with a diameter of 1.2 meters we see the “Flight Attendant” with a sign saying “I’m still here”.
As it is evident, Smith-Ludvik did not stay there all this time, however, the recording was made at a different time than the first one. According to the information shared, the video was taken between October 13 and 14. On those dates, Emirates made low passes with the A380 with the Dubai Expo 2020 livery for three hours.
In the new video, the alleged Emirates flight attendant indicates that, from the top of the Burj Khalifa, she can see Dubai Expo. And finally, she mentions that “Finally your friends are coming”. It is then that the A380, registration A6-USA, makes its appearance against the backdrop of The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai’s iconic landmark.
Suddenly, the A380 is right behind Smith-Ludvik, which, although it may seem fictitious, could be real. This is supported by the fact that the low passes made by the A380 were at an altitude of 2,750 feet and the platform where Smith-Ludvik was located is at 830 meters, i.e. 2,723 feet. Once again, Emirates makes an impact with an advertising video to invite to attend the Dubai Expo 2020.
According to CNN, the A380 was developed at a cost of $25 billion and, with capacity for up to 853 passengers, it’s the largest mass-produced civil airliner in history. The double-decker craft was popular with customers but costly to run, and Airbus announced in 2019 that it would be discontinuing its production. Emirates has 115 of them.
It not the the first time that an Airbus A380 is used for this kind of acrobatics in the air. CNN reports that in 2013, Emirates and Australian flag-carrier Qantas marked an alliance between the two airlines by flying A380s from each of their fleets over Sydney Harbour. The reported altitude was roughly 1500 feet.
In 2015, an Emirates A380 flew next to other small planes for a 10-minute flight over Dubai’s Palm Jumeriah islands in a holding pattern with two jetpack pilots from Jetman Dubai. In 2017, Etihad kicked off the action at the 2017 Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix by also flying alongside the Al Fursan team. In 2019, the Air Show in Dubai opened with a superjumbo flying at an altitude of just 1,000 feet. 26 planes from the United Arab Emirates’ Al Fursan air display team flew across the sky.
