Только сейчас заметил,что прошлогодний сентябрьский визит в США папа Франциск совершил в Боинге 777.  Обратите внимание,как в статье акцентируется внимание именно на этом факте.

Pope Francis arrived to the United States on an Alitalia plane, but his remaining U.S. flights were scheduled to be on American Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

Francis traveled from Washington to New York on American's 777 Thursday, flying from Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland to New York's JFK International Airport on Thursday.

The Pope is addressed the UN General Assembly later Friday and was scheduled to travel to Philadelphia on Saturday. He'll also was expected to make the short hop from New York to Philadelphia on the American 777. On Sunday evening, the Pope was scheduled to return to Rome – also on the American 777.

The plane is dubbed Shepherd One while being used by the Pope.

An American Airlines spokesman tells AP the aircraft was chartered by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help move the Pope around the Northeast during his visit. The spokesman adds the plane's pilots and crew are pulled from American's nationwide employee ranks.

American spokesman Casey Norton tells The Dallas Morning News the airline worked with the Vatican for nearly a year to arrange the Pope's U.S. travel schedule. But, when pressed on details, Norton told the newspaper: "We're limited with the details we can provide because of security."

ON THE WEB: Fun facts and more about life aboard the papal plane (Crux)

The carrier says the plane was expected to go back into regular commercial service after it returns the Pope to Rome.

When air travel is required, the Pope regularly flies on Italian carrier Alitalia. The Pope arrived to both Cuba and the United States this week on Alitalia charter flights.

As for American, this wasn't the first time the carrier hosted a Papal audience. In 1993 American carried Pope John Paul II on a flight from Denver to Rome. More recently, Pope John Paul II flew TWA -- which American absorbed in 2001 -- on a Boeing 767 flight from St. Louis to Rome in 1999.

American tells Today in the Sky that other American/TWA flights that the Pope has flown on include:

1995: TWA: Newark-Baltimore-Rome (Pope John Paul II) – Boeing 767-300
1987: TWA: Eleven-day, nine-city tour (Pope John Paul II) – Boeing 727, Boeing 747
1979: TWA: Six-day, six-city tour and Andrews AFB back to Rome (Pope John Paul II) – Boeing 727

1965: TWA: Rome-JFK-Rome (Pope Paul VI) – Boeing 707
http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinth … /72704142/