Israel’s El Al airline paid tribute to a retiring Boeing 747 by making its final flight path the shape of the plane

• Israeli airline El Al gave a quirky send-off to one of its Boeing 747s by altering its final flight path to trace the outline of the iconic jet in the sky.
• During the flight, pilots flew the plane in a pattern resembling the shape of a 747, which was then picked up by flight tracking website Flightradar 24.
• The 747 is one of the longest-serving aircraft flying commercially. It entered service since 1970.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Israeli airline El Al gave a spectacular send off to its fleet of Boeing 747s by diverting the last scheduled flight of the model to trace the plane’s outline in the sky.

On the last 747 flight by the Israeli national carrier, flight LY1747 diverted over the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to trace an outline of the 747 on its way from Rome to Tel Aviv.

Flight tracking website Flightradar 24 picked up the unusual pattern while the flight was making its way.

Flightradar posted numerous images of the flight to its Twitter page, including an animation showing the 747 flying in the pattern.

According to Flightradar’s map of the flight, the jet flew for around two hours before starting its artwork in the east Mediterranean, west of Cyprus.

Flightradar’s tracking data showed that the plane descended around 10,000 feet from cruising altitude to create the image. The outline appears to be around 100 miles long.

The 747 is one of the longest-serving aircraft in commercial aviation. It first served in 1970, and became a passenger favorite. Some are still in service, though airlines are gradually phasing them out.

Boeing earlier this year unveiled the 777X, which will replace not only the 747, but 777s currently in service as long haul aircraft around the world.

“The big airplane of the future for the aviation industry is going to be the Boeing 777-9,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s vice president of marketing, told Business Insider in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show last year.

El Al has plans to replace its 747s with a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, according to the Jerusalem Post. It has already taken delivery of 12 of the aircraft, the Jerusalem Post added.