‘Slowest Game of Ping-Pong’: 7 Empty Dreamliners Fly To Qatar Only to Return to US a Day Later

In November, a Boeing 747 flew what could be the shortest flight without passengers, taking only 21 minutes.
Sputnik

Seven Dreamliners from Qatar Airways flew from Seattle to Doha only to return to the United States a day after in what was called the slowest game of ping-pong. Qatar Airways has not replied for a comment. The seven jets with no passengers on board flew from the Qatari capital to Victorville, California, which is known mainly as an “aircraft boneyard”.

Each of the aircraft flew more than 15,000 miles and, according to The Independent, burnt at least 150 tonnes of fuel. Plane tracking website FlightRadar24 called the flights “the slowest game of ping-pong”. But when it comes to weirdness it seems that these flights are not on top.

Last month a Qatar Airways plane made a cargo flight between the Dutch city of Maastricht and the Belgian city of Liege, which lasted only 9 minutes. Normally, flight QR8173 would fly from the Qatari capital Doha to Liege and then to Mexico, but a client in Maastricht wanted cargo dropped off there instead.

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