© Getty images
Don't you hate it when you forget where you left your Boeing 747-200F?
Someone abandoned not one, not two, but three of the massive cargo jets at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia.Airport officials, eager to clear the massive clutter, took out ads in Malaysia's
The Star and
Sin Chew Daily newspapers asking for the owner to please come get their planes.
"If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft," the ad states.
The notice includes photos of the orphaned jets -- two white and one "off-white" 747-200Fs.
It adds that cash raised in the sale of the 747-200Fs would be used to pay off expenses and debts.
Malaysia Airports general manager Zainol Mohd Isa told CNN
the aircraft have been parked at KLIA for more than a year, having been abandoned at different times.It's not clear who now bears responsibility for the aircraft and any related charges.
"They've yet to pay the parking fee -- where do we send the bill?" Isa said.
© The StarThe ad placed in The Star newspaper.
Storage space not a problemSeveral aviation databases list the Boeings -- identified by their call signs TF-ARN, TF-ARH, TF-ARM -- as belonging to leasing firm Air Atlanta Icelandic, but that company says it sold them in 2008.
Since then, the aircraft appear to have changed hands several times.Malaysia Airports says it's entitled to sell the Boeings under the country's civil aviation regulations if no owner comes forward.
"The giving of such notice by way of advertisement is a common and reasonable step in the process of debt recovery especially in cases where the company concerned has ceased operations and is a foreign entity whereby exhaustive steps undertaken to find a contact person have not been successful," Malaysia Airports said in a
statement.
"This step is also a common process undertaken by airport operators all over the world when faced with such a situation."
Isa said that storage space wasn't a problem at the airport, adding that the three Boeings are the only aircraft currently abandoned there.
"If you had an A380 we could park it," he added.
The abandoned aircraft aren't the only potential aviation sales to make headlines in Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines, the flag carrier that in 2014 suffered twin tragedies with the disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine, is currently said to be
looking to sell or lease its fleet of six A380s.
CNN's Ravi Hiranand contributed to this report.
...the fact that they used to be owned by an Icelandic company right up until Iceland helped massively to set the financial crash of 2008 in motion, is even more suspicious.
Imo, when an Iceland is involved, there's quite a good chance of things going slightly shady...and our courts agree. We've got how many banksters in jail now/found guilty of all sorts of illegal activities right up until our banks famously collapsed in October '08. Up until the very last minute insiders were shifting, stashing and cashing out their ill-gotten gains. Maybe a plane or two or three had to be disappeared immediately?
This news made it into our local news, and more than one person here finds the whole thing dubious...
(P.s. I know people who work at Air Atlanta here in Iceland today, and they're nothing but reputable on paper. BUT they operate out of Saudi as well, and a pilot I know told me that his cargo, often headed for drops in central African regions, was basically 'a don't ask don't tell' situation. Maybe he was trying to play big, bragging about his adventurous lifestyle, but he (or his planes) had definitely been shot at on the job.)