I imagine, given the era, that every man and his dog came over in the machine to "support" it and it went home loaded to the gunwales with western goods.
Whenever an aeroplane is being delivered by Airbus, Boeing or Embraer to airlines from a certain very large communist country to our north, 20-30 people troop over for the acceptance and delivery, with about 2 blokes doing all the work (which is just doc review - they rarely step on board the aeroplane) and when it leaves it is chock a block with everything they can get their hands on, including a kazzilion rice cookers.
Very funny to watch....