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David Blaine acted out every child’s fantasy today when he strapped himself to 52 helium-filled balloons and then parachuted back to earth from 25,000 feet. Blaine lifted off just before 15:00 UTC from Page, Arizona and climbed for about 45 minutes before releasing himself from the cluster of balloons. //
A new aircraft type in the Flightradar24 database
We had to make some database additions to accommodate Blaine’s unique form of transportation. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first ever ADS-B-equipped bunch of balloons. //
Israeli national carrier El Al made history today, operating its first ever flight between Tel Aviv, Israel and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The 737-900ER performing flight LY971 took 3 hours 17 minutes to complete the 2,110 kilometer journey. It’s a historic flight for the airline but also for Israel and the UAE, as it marks the beginning of a thawing of relations between the two nations. //
The El Al flight acted as a symbol – of the possibility to move beyond those hostilities, or at least to begin the process. In a nod to that fact, the outbound flight number 971 is the international dialing code for the UAE, while the return will carry the Israeli code 972.