Plane Spotting At CMN

And I land into Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport. The airport is named after the current king's grandfather...

And there's the Royal Air Maroc fleet - two Boeing 737s and one Boeing 787 Dream)liner...

Boeing forms the mainstay of Royal Air Maroc's fleet and there is apparently a legend behind that...

On August 16, 1972, the previous monarch, King Hasan II was flying to Rabat from France in a Royal Maroc Boeing 727 alongwith his brother, Prince Abdallah. As the plane entered Moroccan airspace, it was attacked by four Northrop F-5 fighter jets from the Kenitra air force base close to Rabat. The planes shot holes through the fuselage, killing some passengers. One plane broke off, strafing a nearby airfield and killing many on the ground.

The king, who was a pilot himself rushed into the cockpit and radioed the air force "Stop firing you fools, the Tyrant is dead!" 

The attack was fended off, the stricken Boeing 727 landed safely at Rabat-Salé Airport. Later that evening, the mastermind of coup, the military commander and defence minister, Mohamed Oufkir, was allegedly killed. (And Oufkir's family was taken in custody only to be released in 1991 - the family's account was documented by Oufkir's daughter, in a book titled "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail".)

Now King Hasan II was so impressed with the Boeing 727's capability that he ensured all fleet acquisitions by Royal Air Maroc were from the Boeing stable, with the recent exceptions - Embraers and ATRs...

And wherever you fly, I bet you will see an Emirates...

An Emirates Boeing 777...