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Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Oct. 16 The arrival of the world’s quietest and largest aircraft – the Airbus A-380 to Begumpet airport made it one of the most noisy and sought-after places to be in Hyderabad.

And for once the noise was not from the drone of arriving and departing aircraft, but the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the people who had arrived in droves to see what is being termed as the ‘greenest’, clean, quiet and smartest aircraft in the world.

In a symbolic gesture, the aircraft touched down with the Indian tricolour fluttering from the pilot’s windows. A few minutes later an Air India step ladder, which was decorated with flowers was wheeled to the aircraft to allow the staff to get off.

The aircraft, which has the name of all the airlines which have ordered it including Kingfisher, Lufthansa, Thai Airways and Virgin Atlantic painted on the left side, was received by a high powered delegation led by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, and Secretary, Mr M. Nambiar.

Shortly thereafter the dignitaries boarded the aircraft as it was pulled a short distance where it will stand on display till its return journey to France early on Friday.

While the crème-de-crème of Andhra Pradesh like Mr T. Subbarami Reddy and his family were on Wednesday the flavour of the air show, on Thursday it was the turn of Mr Robert Vadera, the son-in-law of Ms Sonia Gandhi. The minute his BMW car came in, the entire area, which till then was open to the public, was out of bounds thereby spoiling some of the fun of the event.

Visitors, mediamen and even security had gala time using their mobile phones to click snaps and take video footage even as the huge aircraft descended on the tarmac and was greeted with a traditional water shower as it taxied to a halt.

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