Etihad Airways let a 6-year-old fly one of its planes. Conde Nast Traveler reports the child prodigy, Adam Mohammad Amer, met an Etihad crew several months ago where he impressed pilots with his understanding of how planes fly. At the time, the crew invited him in to check out the cockpit and shot a video of the experience that went viral.
Weeks later the airline gave him a shot at piloting An Airbus A380, the world’s largest airplane, himself – sort of. The experience actually took place inside one of the airline’s flight simulators. Amer was outfitted with a child-sized version of a pilot’s uniform and given the opportunity to try and fly the virtual plane.
Turns out, he was pretty successful. He was able to take off and land successfully, with just one dicey moment where the nose of the plane was posting a bit too low. Not bad for a 6-year-old.