Two of Cargolux's air safety chiefs were on board the Boeing 747-8F which gave a highly controversial wing wave as it left Seattle at the end of September.

The revelation was reported by Berlin newspaper Tageszeitung, which said that two Vice-Presidents of Cargolux responsible for air safety were in the cockpit of the plane named "City of Zhengzhou".

Amateur video footage of the wavy take-off shows the pilot dipping the wings simultaneously in a manoevre known as a wing wave, as the aircraft took off.

The German newspaper derided the act as one of “cockpit cowboys” and said that Cargolux has conducted a formal internal investigation into the manoeuvre.

The investigation reportedly concluded that the position of the aircraft was excessive and unstable at times and was not compatible with aviation safety.

Normally, this kind of manoeuvre for first flights is not atttempted below an altitude of at least 120 metres, which was not the case for the Boeing 747-8F.

According to the newspaper, following the incident Cargolux CEO Dirk Reich wrote an internal email saying that the plane could have crashed had the pilot not managed to recover control at the last minute.

It reports that the pilot in question is no longer part of the Cargolux training team. It added that Mr Reich said that a vice president would take a break for at least six months after sending a letter of apology to management.

The Department of Civil Aviation has not launched an investigation.

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