Madrid’s Barajas airport is seeking the owner of a ‘ghost’ plane which has been left abandoned on the airfield for a number of years. If the owner doesn’t come forward the mysterious plane will be auctioned to the public.
An abandoned ‘ghost’ plane at Madrid’s Barajas airport has flummoxed officials. Image by Getty
It’s estimated that the aircraft has been parked at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Barajas airport, the sixth-busiest airport in the world, for nine years but nobody’s sure who owns it or why it was left there. At some point, someone taped off its motors, openings and pilot-static system, although it’s not clear who. Baffled airport staff have nicknamed it the “ghost plane”. The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 aircraft was previously owned by Iberia, Spain’s national carrier, but has since belonged to two different companies that have gone out of business.
An Iberia MD-87, the same model left in Madrid. Image by JOKER/Hady Khandani/ullstein bild via Getty Images
A notice released by Elena Mayoral Corcuera, director of the airport, earlier this month said the plane was in an “obvious state of abandonment” and that, in accordance with aviation law, three requests for an owner to come forward will be issued in three consecutive months. If a year then passes without a claim, the plane will be considered legally abandoned and it will be sold off by the state at public auction, with proceeds going to the state, minus the accumulated parking fees.
The aircraft appears to have been grounded since 2010. Photo by Christian Nass/EyeEm/Getty Images
It’s rare for aircraft to be abandoned at working airports. According to the Spanish airport authority AENA, the MD87 is currently the only abandoned aircraft at Barajas airport, however a similar case occurred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015. Three Boeing 747s (one without any engines) had been parked on the tarmac for more than a year, prompting airport officials to place an ad in a national newspaper seeking the owner. According to the BBC, a Malaysian cargo firm called Swift Air came forward to claim the aircraft and explained that the aircraft had not abandoned but were subject to a paperwork dispute with airport authorities.
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