Flying On Video: An Inside View Of Etihad’s Greenliner Flight

When Mimmo Catalano was 5 years old, his dad took him to work at his office, at an airport in Sardinia, and the boy’s imagination was captured. Today Catalano is a 16-year veteran of Etihad Airways, and last October he captained a long-haul flight from London to Abu Dhabi that was like none before it. The Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, powered by GE Aviation’s GEnx engines, produced carbon emissions 72% lower than those on a typical flight. How Etihad and its captain accomplished this is a story of many contributing technologies. They include sustainable aviation fuel, contrail mitigation, GE’s Fuel Insight software and a cleaning system that helps make jet engines run more efficiently. The trip showed what a more sustainable future could look like for the airline industry.

But there’s more to the story. Etihad collaborated with American filmmaker Michel Moskal, who placed 10 cameras in Catalano’s cockpit and filmed the Greenliner flight. The video, which was published by Moskal’s channel Just Planes last week, has already garnered more than a million views.

Moskal, who just happens to live a quick drive from GE Aviation’s jet engine factory in Lynn, Massachusetts — the same plant that developed the first U.S. jet engine in 1942 — launched Just Planes in 1990. He and his team have since filmed just under 300 airlines, and their videos exceeded 500 million views on social media in 2021, making the channel a top destination for aviation enthusiasts. The Greenliner flight was Just Planes’ third project with Etihad. Take a look here and here, and read our profile of Captain Mimmo here!

Image credit: Courtesy of Mimmo Catalano