In a secret operation in 1991, Israel evacuated about 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa, the embattled capital of Ethiopia, in an airlift that included 40 flights over a 36-hour period. One of those flights set an astounding record for the largest number of passengers carried by a commercial airliner. The aircraft was an El Al Boeing 747 with all of the seats removed. Guinness World Records pegged the number of passengers at 1,088, but other reports say that as many as 1,122 passengers were on the plane, as dozens of children were thought to have hidden in their mothers' robes. Not to mention the two babies who were born en route!
More about the world's fullest flight:
- Planners expected to fill the plane with 760 passengers but because most of the passengers weighed so little, many more people were squeezed on board.
- The Ethiopian immigrants were met by ambulances, with 140 passengers receiving medical care on the tarmac. The newborns were rushed to the hospital.
- "It was a very nice flight," said one of the new arrivals afterward. "We didn't bring any of our clothes, we didn't bring any of our things, but we are very glad to be here."