Boeing is nearing a $4 billion (€3.53bn) deal with Russia’s largest air-freight company that would help extend the life of the iconic, hump-nosed 747 jumbo jet amid waning demand for four-engine aircraft, people close to the transaction said.

The stakes were high at the Cuban military airfield in San Antonio de los Baños, some 20 miles south west of Havana, two days before Christmas in 1962.

A privately-owned jet was filled with the largest ever amount of aviation fuel taken on by a single aircraft at Shannon Airport during a stopover on Wednesday night.