Flight 666 Heads To 'HEL' On Friday The 13th

Few holidays draw as much superstition around the paranormal as Friday the 13th — particularly in the rare occasion that it falls in October, thereby preceding Halloween. Perhaps this was why the internet was pleased to have discovered a Helsinki-bound plane with the flight number 666 — the infamous Number of the Beast described in the New Testament's Book of Revelations — departing on the purported unlucky day.

A screen grab of the flight was posted by Sweden-based air traffic tracker Flightradar24, which tweeted: “Flight 666 on #FridayThe13th is now en route to #HEL.”

Indeed, FlightView confirmed that Finnair (AY) 666 departed Copenhagen Airport (CPH) and landed at Helsinki Airport (HEL) roughly two hours later. Getting in on the fun, the Helsinki Airport later responded to a second Flightradar24 tweet asking the airport if the plane would be landing at Gate 13.

“Hi there! We have something better in opur [ sic ] mind: our heavy metal themed bus will give one HEL of a ride for #AY666 passengers!” the airport wrote, sharing an image of a bus that read “Hard Rockin’ HEL.”

The airport later tweeted: “#AY666 arrived in HEL! Luckily we managed to get the gate arrival in the end, and as we do things double-well here, the gate is 13+13=26!”

Finnair shared a statement on Twitter that this week’s Flight 666 to Helsinki would be its last after having flown 15 flights in 11 years with the devil’s number on a Friday the 13th. The airline said the change was the result of new flight numbers, and the flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki will in the future be Flight 954.

“Farewell to Finnair AY666,” wrote the airline, “but remember, we still have a flight from SIN to HEL.”