Time's up, it seems, for the mysterious Russian cargo plane at the abandoned Umm Al Quwain airfield. After rusting on the tarmac for decades, now it's being dismantled, marking, for me at least, the end of an era.
It may sound bizarre to claim affinity with an inanimate object, but that plane and I go way back.
In 2008, I had recently arrived in the UAE and, eager to explore, every weekend I would throw the dog and a picnic into my Toyota Yaris and head out into the Great Unknown. With no Google Maps or Waze to guide me, I drove blind, stumbling across some amazing places in the process.
Case in point, this Russian aircraft. Hanging a right at a roundabout in Umm Al Quwain, imagine my surprise when a Soviet-era troop carrier hove into view.
The Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, which was built for the Soviet air force in the 1970s, has become something of a UAE landmark and is now familiar to anyone driving past the Barracuda Beach Resort along the E11. It is thought that the plane landed here in early 2000, when the runway was converted to tarmac.
In the late 2000s, I had a job at the newly launched magazine Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. So, when we were given the go-ahead to create our own fashion shoots, my thoughts turned immediately to the rusting plane. By chance, I knew people who trained at the now-defunct Umm Al Quwain Sky Diving school — on whose property the plane was parked — so was put in touch with the man in charge. After a little begging and pleading, we were granted access.
With a plane as the backdrop, it was only natural to theme the fashion shoot around it. I named it Drop Zone, called in press sample jumpsuits from Europe, and decided we absolutely had to have a golden parachute. A tailor in Satwa was handed two bolts of gold cloth and a sketch of what I wanted. When I went to collect it a week later, he looked at me with real concern. "What is this?" he asked. "A parachute," I replied. He made me vow to never jump out of an actual plane with it.
Driving a borrowed van, with suitcases full of clothes and the parachute stuffed inside a bin bag, the magazine contingent — consisting of Australian photographer Simon Upton and his team, including Madonna’s one-time hairdresser — and I all headed to the tiny airstrip.
For that one amazing day, we clambered in, around and even on top of this mighty machine, in search of the perfect shot.
Because it was a windy day, we quickly realised our model was no match for a parachute canopy filled with air. After being wrenched off her feet, we had to swap in the photographer's assistant instead, with the rest of us hanging on to the harness to anchor him down.
We repeated the shot with the model, minus the parachute, and stripped the two images together in Photoshop.
One image that was genuine is of our intrepid model standing — in heels — on top of the fuselage.
Three of us climbed on top of the plane to capture it. The model wobbled in her heels to one end of the plane, while the photographer stood at the other. I sat nervously in between, trying not to think about the lawsuits should one of them fall off. Sitting on the apex of the curved metal, it turns out airplanes are a lot bigger than I had imagined.
After eight hours of being sand blasted and sun burnt, we had our shoot, and made history as the first — and to my knowledge last, although I can't confirm that — fashion crew given access to the plane.
Not long after, the airfield closed down and the plane was corralled behind a chained fence. A security guard sat on site for a while, shooing people away, but after a few years, he left too, and the plane was left to rot. Pigeons took up residence in the engines until those were closed off, and even the ladder was removed to stop people getting inside.
Despite that, in 2019, Emirati filmmaker Aiham Al Subaihi managed to direct a music video by Abu Dhabi rapper Freek at the plane, which has since been viewed almost two million times.
Over the years, driving past has triggered all sorts of happy memories, and I feel the plane and I have a kinship, a shared history.
They say everything has its moment, and the plane's moment has certainly passed. Authorities have not revealed why the plane is being taken down, but it is believed to be in the way of a new development. Yet, the news that it's being dismantled fills me with something akin to regret, like losing a once-treasured friend.
After hours spent climbing around its belly and across its roof, in a surreal Yossarian-esque (the character from Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22) experience, covered in its dust and oil, there is a bond that time cannot break. That plane and I are practically family now, and I shall miss it when it goes.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors
Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km
Price: from Dh199,900
On sale: now
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
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Power: 375bhp
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Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
Available at Magrudy’s , Dh104
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Points to remember
- Debate the issue, don't attack the person
- Build the relationship and dialogue by seeking to find common ground
- Express passion for the issue but be aware of when you're losing control or when there's anger. If there is, pause and take some time out.
- Listen actively without interrupting
- Avoid assumptions, seek understanding, ask questions
SPECS
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Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
The specs
Price: From Dh529,000
Engine: 5-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 520hp
Torque: 625Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.8L/100km
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
