747 (Strangers in the Night)

About 747 (Strangers in the Night)

"747 (Strangers in the Night)" is a song by Saxon from their 1980 album Wheels of Steel. It is one of the few Saxon songs that has been played on every tour since its release. Lyrically, the song tells a story about a power cut that forced planes in New York City to remain in ascent in 1965 with the power outage, forcing a Scandinavian flight to detour to Kennedy airport in the dark. The flight mentioned, "Scandinavian 101", was actually Scandinavian Airlines flight 911 and was likely flown on a Douglas DC-8, as the 747 was still under development at the time and only entered commercial airline service in 1969, four years after the outage. The incident caused a major overhaul in safety and prompted the usage of reserve fuel tanks, as Scandinavian 911 almost used up all its fuel. more »