Do These 747s Belong To You?

That was essentially the title of an e-mail I received from a reader earlier today.  Tommy V sent me this article showing 3 abandoned Boeing 747 jets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia:

The operators of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) have placed a bizarre advertisement in a Malaysian newspaper seeking the owners of three 747-200F aircraft apparently abandoned there.

“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” under Malaysian regulations, said the ad which ran in Monday’s edition of The Star.

The notice was addressed to the “untraceable owner” of the planes.
Zainol Mohd Isa, general manager of Malaysia Airports (Sepang), which operates the facility, said the airport had been trying to contact the planes’ last known owners.

That lead me to do a little digging, and I found listings on Airliner.net showing their previous owners.  They were registered to Malaysia Airlines at one point, but seemed to be registered to Air Atlanta Icelandic most recently.  The odd thing is that the most recent pictures that seem to be a year old or less, show the planes with no discernible markings.  This dovetails into Air Atlanta Icelandic’s indication that they returned the jets to their owner.

“Air Atlanta Icelandic does not have any knowledge of who the current owner of these aircraft is today, and has nothing to do with these aircraft today,” said Hermannsson.

The aircraft with registration TF-ARM and TF-ARN were de-registered on Jan 3, 2012, while TF-ARH was de-registered on June 9, 2011.

“No-one seems to have painted over the registration marks since then,” said Hermannsson.

I mean, just harvesting these for engines and parts should yield a hefty sum, though maybe the planes aren’t aviation worthy?  One would think the owners could at least sell the engines if that were the case.

Very, very odd.