Each September UN Week comes to New York City, bringing with it high expectations for local plane spotters. This year, a record breaking 135 nations spoke during the General Debate. As you might imagine, this meant that there was ample VIP aircraft traffic to photograph over the course of 2 weeks. In fact, 2014 brought one of the best showings of aircraft in recent memory. From a classic 707-100 to the first UN Week appearance of a 787, the variety of aircraft visiting were plentiful.
Also plentiful were the number of plane spotters that came out. At one point on Sunday evening, there were over 25 plane spotters at one location. And they weren’t just from the New York City area either. In addition to a spotter from the Atlanta area, Ireland, Brazil, and France were all represented.
The aircraft that were the highlights of the week were varied in type, age, and which part of the world they hailed from. Turkey’s brand new A330-200 (above) was widely regarded as the best looking visitor. Other highlights included TU154s from Belarus and Slovakia, South Africa’s chartered 727-200, and an Iraqi Airways 777-200LR. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 707 was its typical beautiful yet elusive self, rewarding those spotters who stuck it out until the end with a dusk arrival on the second Saturday.
The table below is, as best we can tell, a complete listing of all of the aircraft that visited the New York area this year. It has been compiled from the reports of plane spotters from around the New York region to the NYCAviation Forums. Photos, many courtesy of NYCAviation’s Contributing Photographers, have been included whenever possible. While most photos are from this year, a few are not. Those have been marked as “File Photo.” Finally, in a few instances we have been unable to identify which nation an aircraft was operating for, and those have been classified as “Unknown.” If you have a photo or info that we’re missing that you would like to see included, please email it to [email protected]. Finally, if you like what you see here and want to join in the fun in 2015, mark your calendars for the second half of September.
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Ben Granucci, Associate Editor, is an aviation enthusiast and plane spotter based in New York City. Growing up in Connecticut, he has had his eyes toward the sky for as long as he can remember. He can be reached on Twitter at @BLGranucci or through his blog at Landing-Lights.com.
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