Superjumbo soars into history books

THE world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, completed its maiden flight yesterday over the Pyrenees.

There was applause as the double-decked, 308-ton plane landed successfully at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport in southwestern France at 2.22pm (1.22pm Irish time) after a flight of nearly four hours.

About 30,000 spectators watched the white plane with blue tail take off and touch down. Before it landed, its front lights shining, the A380 did a slow flyover above the airport, where it had taken off at 10.29am (11.29am Irish time).