To celebrate the Dubai Expo, the Emirati airline released a proud video entitled “We’re at the top of the World”. Please refrain if you are prone to vertigo!

As the World Expo drew to a close and Emirates decided to offer a free ticket to all its passengers, the airline did it again, this time with an A380 passing behind the stewardess standing at the top of the Burj Khalifa.

We tell you all about it in this video.

This is not a fake: a person did climb to the very top of the spire overlooking the Burj Khalifa (907m), and a plane did indeed pass behind her for the shot.

Rest assured, no Emirates stewardess had to risk her life for this shoot. It was professional skydiver Nicole Smith-Ludvik who donned an Emirates uniform for the shoot. And she was tied up.

While the first spot was shot by a drone, the second was filmed by a hovering helicopter. To achieve the crushing effect of depth that makes the A380 look so close to the character, you need a zoom lens that you won’t find on a drone, but on a real professional camera.

An A380 was painted especially for the occasion. Rest assured, we’ll be seeing it operate passenger flights for some time to come!

It took meticulous preparation and no less than 11 passes of the A380 around the Burj Khalifa to get the perfect shot.

The aircraft had to fly at an extremely low speed (145 knots = 270 km/h) to take the shot. Its landing speed is 250 km/h, below which it’s not far from stalling.

And if the camera seems to pass a few meters behind the character, this is, as we said, due to a crushing effect caused by the zoom lens. In fact, the plane passed within 800m of the Burj Khalifa.

Come on, we’ve even got the making-of video for you.