After a short night, we headed straight to the airport. Not even the thunderstorm could hold us back.

In the afternoon, while heavy thunderstorms and flooding hit the island — turning streets into rushing rivers — we drove west, away from the storm. After countless hairpin turns and narrow roads, we passed through a beautiful little village called 'Valldemossa' and eventually reached the stunning town of 'Deià'.

Since I was using my Canon 5D Mark IV, a full-frame camera, together with the Tamron 100–400, the spot on the parking garage overlooking Runway 06L was just barely within reach. Even so, I needed the full 400 mm for narrowbodies, which wasn’t easy to handle in the strong wind. When D-ABOM — the “rote Ringelsocke” — touched down, I was lucky enough to get two or three sharp shots.

Right after the 757 arrived, we drove back to the hotel for brekkie and then headed straight to the next spotting location, where you can see the line-ups for Runway 06R. We wanted to catch D-ABOM’s departure as well — and timing worked out perfectly, because the takeoff was delayed. The sun rose just in time, giving us a bit of light on the aircraft!

It couldn’t have been any better for me — the perfect line-up angle to see just how incredibly narrow and yet unbelievably long this aircraft really is, especially compared to its competitors like the Airbus narrow bodies. When the engines roared, I got goosebumps and consciously took in every second of the moment, knowing that it wouldn’t be possible much longer.

The evening flights from Germany were scheduled to arrive while it was still daylight, but they were heavily delayed — which turned it into a night-spotting session instead. Not too bad either!

As we lined up on Runway 06R, the two beautiful Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4B engines came to life. I photographed through the window — or rather, held the shutter down nonstop. I started to feel dizzy from looking through the viewfinder the entire time, and we were pushed deep into our seats — until the moment we finally lifted off. What a fascinating takeoff that was.

After a beautiful — yet far too short — flight, we landed in Frankfurt. Shortly afterward, we were allowed to visit the flight deck and moments later, we stepped inside. The captain welcomed us warmly into the cockpit, where the window was opened, letting in the cool autumn air. You could see and feel that this aircraft had served for many years; every instrument and every lever carried the marks of time. The cockpit was still one of the classic ones — filled with analog instruments and old-fashioned gauges, a piece of aviation history in front of us. The captain, who had flown the “57” for 17 years, even switched on the instrument lighting just so we could take a realistic photo. He told us that this very aircraft would perform the final flight of Condor’s 757 fleet — and that he would have the honour of flying it one last time.
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We knew we would never board this aircraft again.

N294UP | McDonnell Douglas MD-11(F) | 7th August 2022 | Cologne, Germany
Back in 2022, UPS’s MD-11s were still flying to Cologne — a rare sight we knew wouldn’t last much longer. So a friend and I headed there with one mission: to catch the MD-11 while we still could. This photo shows N294UP lining up for its sunrise departure to Louisville at 7:20 AM. As the departure kept getting delayed, it became very tight with our train connection back to Switzerland, but it was worth the wait. Only later did we realize that this flight had been the aircraft’s final departure from Cologne. Since early 2025, N294UP has been stored in Roswell¹, and UPS has now completely withdrawn the MD-11 from Europe — a last glimpse of a legend.
¹ Source: Planespotters.net – N294UP

VH-YQW | Boeing 717-200 | 28th September 2024 | Sydney, Australia
There was a problem: Qantas had announced that they would retire their 717 fleet by mid-2024, but I was heading to Sydney at the end of September. That made it uncertain whether I’d still be able to catch one of Qantas’ remaining 717s or not. In the end, luck was on my side. While spotting at Sydney that morning, I discovered that YQW was scheduled to fly to Launceston — and it even used the runway right in front of me. This was exactly four weeks before its official retirement. Somehow, though, YQW wasn’t phased out as planned; it kept flying until December, when it was finally retired. Interestingly, this particular aircraft was the very last Boeing 717 ever produced. After its final flight, it found a new home at Brisbane Airport (BNE), where it was preserved¹ on December 30, 2024, to serve as an engineering training aid.
¹ Source: Planespotters.net – VH-YQW

HZ-HM1C | Boeing 747SP | 20th August 2017 | Zurich, Switzerland
This is one of my most valuable photos to date. It was a beautiful evening, and luckily I had my camera with me — without any idea that I was about to capture one of the rarest birds out there. Suddenly, I heard a deep roar, grabbed my camera, and started shooting. At first, I only knew it was some kind of government Jumbo Jet. Two years later, I found out that it was actually an incredibly rare 747SP. As it turned out, this was the very last visit of this beauty to Zurich before it was withdrawn from service and stored permanently¹​ later that same year, in 2017. What a pity it doesn’t fly any more.
¹ Source: Planespotters.net – HZ-HM1C

4L-GEN​ | Boeing 747-236B(SF) ​ | 6th August 2022 | Maastricht, Netherlands
Neither does any 747-200 fly into Maastricht anymore, nor does this one fly at all! At the end of 2022, Maastricht Airport (MST) banned both the 747-200 and the MD-11 due to noise restrictions. 4L-GEN, originally delivered to British Airways¹, is seen here arriving at Maastricht directly from Tbilisi. Everything worked out perfectly for this shot — the journey from Cologne to Maastricht by public transport was quite an adventure, and I caught the 747 just minutes after arriving at the airport. It was a nerve-racking trip, but absolutely worth it! Unfortunately, 4L-GEN has been withdrawn from use and stored since May 2025¹.
¹ Source: Planespotters.net – 4L-GEN

HB-JMG​ | Airbus A340-300 ​| 28th May 2021 | Zurich, Switzerland
This beautiful A340 called Zurich its home for over 20 years! It departed in front of a stunning panorama, bound for the Maldives. In October 2025, it was retired and flew to its final destination — Teruel — which marked the first retirement of the remaining A340s Switzerland still has in service.