In the wee hours of the morning at 1:55 AM MDT (3:55 AM, here on the east coast), JetBlue 6411 quietly took off from Roswell International Air Center (KROW) in New Mexico bound for New York’s JFK. However, there were no revenue customers on this late night flight.
After months of eager anticipation, the 8-year old Mosaic-finned A320 aircraft formerly known as “I Love Blue” (tail N615JB) got a fresh coat of paint. As alluded to yesterday in JetBlue’s BlueTales Blog, this aircraft, however, was undergoing a special repaint honoring “the brave men and women of the New York City Fire Department.” The aircraft has been rightly renamed “Blue Bravest.”
In true JetBlue fashion, the unseen fire engine red aircraft was unveiled for all New Yorkers to see in an early morning, low-level flight up the Hudson River. It flew north from the Verrazano to the George Washington Bridge at an altitude of 2,000 feet before turning for approach into JFK.
The red hot livery joins alongside the “Boston Red Sox”, “NY’s Hometown Airline”, “10th Anniversary”, “NY Jets – JetGreen”, and “Building Blocks” in JetBlue’s collection of specially painted aircraft.
For those that were lucky enough to snap a shot of the aircraft flying this morning, be sure to tweet your photo @JetBlue with the hashtag #BlueBravest for a chance to win two roundtrip flights between any of JetBlue’s domestic destinations. If you weren’t in New York this morning, JetBlue doesn’t want to leave you out either, so you can use the photo that they tweet this afternoon. The entry window ends tonight at 11:59 PM EST.
To see more photos and coverage of the JetBlue FDNY A320, have a look at what the spotters are showing off on our forums.
Stephen Weisbrot joined NYCAviation in 2013. Stephen has a background in brand design, marketing, and strategy and is a resident of New York City. As a self-diagnosed #avgeek, he aspires to become a pilot one day as well. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @StephenWeisbrot.