World’s largest aircraft lands in Sri Lanka’s southern airport
The world’s largest aircraft, Antonov An-225 “Mriya” landed at the Mattala Rajapakse International Airport (MRIA) in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, officials said.
Chief Airport Manager of the MRIA Upul Kalansuriya told Xinhua the aircraft landed at 6.30 a.m. local time for re-fueling and rest for its 28 crew members.
This is the first time that the An-225 has landed in Sri Lanka.
“Antonov flights usually use MRIA as a transit base to re-fuel and provide rest for its crew members. On average 4 Antonov flights land at the MRIA per month but this is the first time the Antonov 225 landed in Sri Lanka,” Kalansuriya said.
The Antonov An-225 “Mriya” was designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in Ukraine in the 1980s.
The aircraft is powered by six turbo fan engines and is the heaviest aircraft ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tons.
It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.
(Xinhua)
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Oh thought landed to buy some paddy stored by RW
That’s great news.
Our former leader who was ungraciously voted out from office, established this magnificent Airport in Mattala along with the harbour in Hambantota. These two masterpiece infrastructure elements will survive the test of time and will eventually emerge as our Motherland’s saviour.
The red nosed clowns that occupy the seats of power may handover these valuable infrastructure to the Chinks in return for a few, stinking dollars in their Swiss Bank accounts.
But Mahinda R, the war-winning patriot will always remain in our hearts. The work he did in eliminating tamil terrorism and developing all corners of the country will stay with us forever.
I can proudly say that I totally agree with you. Unfortunately most of the politicians of today have no education, no class and no sense of patriotism. They criticized every thing that MR did for the sake of the party not thinking of the country. This trend in SL and it will take a long time to change.
Dear Mr. Harrioson Peiris, Thank you for your comments and I agree with it. We can not forget the enormous serve done by Mahinda Rajapakse by winning the terror war. Accusation corruption, separatism, was there but false propaganda can not erase the things he did? If Mattala is a white elephant why these big aircraft land? If Habanthota harbor has a big rock why Chinese got it for 99 Years? Has the Yaha Palanay government done any significant development from January 2015? To date Mahinda bashing continuing and masses in Sri Lanka fed up with that.