Recording of "LH 1JR (Super)" departing LAX on December 10th, 2025.
This flight, Los Angeles - Munich, normally bears the callsign "LH253". The callsign was changed on the occasion to remember former Lufthansa Captain Jürgen Raps (JR), who passed away a few days ago, aged 74.
He had been flying for Lufthansa for 40 years - and held almost every position an airline pilot could hope for (A380 captain, delivering LH's very first A380 in 2010, LH chief pilot, director of the flight school, board member, ...).
He became a little famous (in aviation geek circles) after his active career, as his retirement flight in 2011 (A380, Frankfurt - San Francisco - Frankfurt) had been documented by PilotsEye cockpit videos. The videos were later made freely available on Youtube, and have since racked up tens of millions of views.
Probably not a coincidence: the aircraft of "LH 1JR", registration D-AIMA, actually was Lufthansa's very first A380. The very aircraft which Captain Raps had delivered in 2010.
Otherwise, except for the callsign, absolutely nothing special about this recording. Just a normal A380 departure...
