Screenshot of a group photo taken on the C919’s maiden commercial flight, from the paper.cn.

 
Following the successful landing of a home-made C919 aircraft, a group photo of passengers on board sparked discussion among Chinese netizens and domestic aviation fans as they expressed their excitement and pride on Chinese social media platforms.   

The four passengers sitting in the first row, who are "thumbing up" for the success, are Song Zhiyong, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China; He Dongfeng, chairman of Commercial Aircraft Corp of China; Li Yangmin, vice chairman of China Eastern Airlines Corp, and Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong, the paper.cn reported. 

The two passengers sitting in the middle of the second row are academicians who have devoted their efforts to the C919, Wu Guanghui, chief designer of the C919, and Zhang Yanzhong, an expert in aviation system engineering and signal processing.
 
Chinese netizens also expressed their excitement and pride under the post showing the photo, while the topic “C919’s maiden commercial flight” trended on Sina Weibo, with more than 120 million views and 15,000 comments and discussions as of press time. 

A Chinese netizen commented under the photo, saying that he wishes to be able to take the C919 as soon as possible, and thanking all personnel who contributed to the "big plane."  

“I am so proud of China’s ‘big plane',” he said.

Another comment said that the C919 fully demonstrates China’s strength. 

A number of comments were just simple emoji with expressions of thumbs up, which illustrated Chinese netizens’ delight and pride. 

The first commercial flight of the home-made C919 narrow-body plane took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport on Sunday morning and landed in Beijing Capital International Airport at about 12:31 pm, with around 130 passengers aboard. 

Annual production capacity for the plane is expected to reach 150 in five years.