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Dubai Number Plate Sells for Record $14.9 Million at Auction

Expensive car plate broke a record at a charity auction (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Expensive car plate broke a record at a charity auction (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Dubai Number Plate Sells for Record $14.9 Million at Auction

Expensive car plate broke a record at a charity auction (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Expensive car plate broke a record at a charity auction (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A Dubai charity auction dedicated to support the inauguration of a Ramadan sustainable food aid endowment fund raised Dh97.9 million ($26.6 million).

The auction hit a record by selling the ‘P 7’ plate, the most expensive license plate in the world for Dh55 million ($14.9 million), breaking the former record of Dh52.2 million ($14.2 million).

Dubai's “Most Noble Numbers” charity auction for special numbers, held on April 8, and whose proceeds will go to the One Billion Meals campaign, managed to sell 35 special numbers including 14 license plates, 10 Du phone numbers, and 11 Etisalat phone numbers.

The proceeds from the auction will go to the “One Billion Meals" campaign aimed at finding sustainable solutions for hunger and malnutrition in vulnerable communities, and to implement targeted programs, projects and initiatives within systematic plans and specific targets to eradicate hunger.

The charitable bids on vehicle plate numbers hit a total of Dh91.5 million ($24.9 million), and the Etisalat phone numbers raised about Dh3.3 million ($904,500), while Du numbers amounted to Dh3 million ($818,800).

According to the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, the “Most Noble Numbers” charity auction supporting the One Billion Meals campaign, offers philanthropists an innovative opportunity during the Holy Month of Ramadan to contribute to establishing a food safety network that starts in the UAE and serves the vulnerable categories in unfortunate communities.

The One Billion Meals campaign, held under the umbrella of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation, aims to revive the endowment as a development tool for societies, ensure the sustainability of giving, and contribute to global hunger eradication efforts, considered one of the most significant development goals.

Alongside the charity auction, the One Billion Meals campaign has five other contribution outlets: the official website, call center, shareholding in the endowment, and bank transfers. The campaign also receives donations via text messages.

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Explorer: Sonar Image Was Rock Formation, Not Amelia Earhart Plane

A statue of Amelia Earhart at the US Capitol. Nathan Howard / GETTY IMAGES/AFP
A statue of Amelia Earhart at the US Capitol. Nathan Howard / GETTY IMAGES/AFP
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Explorer: Sonar Image Was Rock Formation, Not Amelia Earhart Plane

A statue of Amelia Earhart at the US Capitol. Nathan Howard / GETTY IMAGES/AFP
A statue of Amelia Earhart at the US Capitol. Nathan Howard / GETTY IMAGES/AFP

A sonar image suspected of showing the remains of the plane of Amelia Earhart, the famed American aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, has turned out to be a rock formation.

Deep Sea Vision (DSV), a South Carolina-based firm, released the blurry image in January captured by an unmanned submersible of what it said may be Earhart's plane on the seafloor.

Not so, the company said in an update on Instagram this month, AFP reported.

"After 11 months the waiting has finally ended and unfortunately our target was not Amelia's Electra 10E (just a natural rock formation)," Deep Sea Vision said.

"As we speak DSV continues to search," it said. "The plot thickens with still no evidence of her disappearance ever found."

The image was taken by DSV during an extensive search in an area of the Pacific to the west of Earhart's planned destination, remote Howland Island.

Earhart went missing while on a pioneering round-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan.

Her disappearance is one of the most tantalizing mysteries in aviation lore, fascinating historians for decades and spawning books, movies and theories galore.

The prevailing belief is that Earhart, 39, and Noonan, 44, ran out of fuel and ditched their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in the Pacific near Howland Island while on one of the final legs of their epic journey.

Earhart, who won fame in 1932 as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, took off on May 20, 1937 from Oakland, California, hoping to become the first woman to fly around the world.

She and Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937 after taking off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, on a challenging 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) flight to refuel on Howland Island, a speck of a US territory between Australia and Hawaii.

They never made it.