King and Queen of Thailand take off from Bhutan in Boeing 737 that they fly themselves as pilot and co-pilot

The King and Queen of Thailand took off from Bhutan in a Boeing 737… which they fly themselves.

Believe it or not, both the king and the queen are qualified pilots.

This is definitely unusual.

And, for a very good reason, it’s also something very few heads of state can do.

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How the King and Queen of Thailand fly their Boeing 737

When the King and Queen of Thailand left Bhutan after an official visit, people were quick to note that they weren’t simply boarding their plane as passengers.

Amazingly, the King flies the plane, and the Queen is his co-pilot.

This is not unheard of -the Dutch King is also a qualified pilot and flies his own plane – but it is definitely uncommon.

And the Boeing 737 isn’t a particularly easy plane to fly.

In order to get the license required to fly the Boeing 737 the way the King did, you need at least 1,500 hours of training.

Even though, to be fair, the King’s military background as an officer in the Royal Thai Army definitely helped.

The reason why most royals and heads of state would never do this – even if they wanted to

Several celebrities can fly their own planes.

John Travolta, for example, famously holds at least eight licenses to fly his aircraft.

Tom Cruise is also a qualified pilot.

But it’s not every day you learn about actual royals or heads of state who do that.

Partly because some heads of state would probably not even be allowed to do that for security reasons.

For instance, the US president would never be allowed to fly his own plane.

US presidents can’t even drive their own cars, let alone pilot an airplane.