KARACHI: The world’s largest cargo aircraft, known as Antonov An-225 Mriya, made a technical stopover at Karachi airport on Wednesday.

The Russian-made wide-body aircraft, which is powered by six turbofan engines and said to be the longest and heaviest plane ever built, took off from Afghanistan and landed at Jinnah International Airport a little before noon.

With maximum take-off weight of 700 tonnes, it has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.

Airport sources said the aircraft was scheduled to leave Karachi in the early hours of Thursday morning. They said the aircraft contained military cargo that was being transported from Afghanistan as part of withdrawal plan of the US and allied forces from the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, social media is abuzz with the arrival of the world’s largest cargo aircraft in Karachi as people shared its photographs and videos on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2021