10. SS THISTLEGORM
The British Merchant Navy ship SS Thistlegorm completed just 3 successful voyages before
she went down in the Red Sea during WWII. She was sunk by German bombers the year after being built.
The Thistlegorm spent her short-lived career transporting steel rails, aircraft parts, grain,
and rum between the U.S. Argentina, and the West Indies. She embarked on her last voyage in 1941,
leaving Glasgow, Scotland for Alexandria, Egypt. The ship's cargo contained motorcycles,
armored vehicles, trucks, guns, ammo, radio equipment,
aircraft and railway parts, and two train locomotives.
When the 420-foot-long (128 meters) ship reached the Suez Canal, there was an accident
blocking the waterway. The ship is almost as long as the Great Pyramid of Giza is tall.
The captain had little choice but to dock the vessel off the Egyptian coast.
Suspecting that the Allies were trying to enter Egypt, the Nazis dispatched a pair
of bombers with orders to find and destroy the ship. Two bombs struck the Thistlegorm,
causing some of the ammunition on board to explode. Nine people died in the attack.
French explorer Jacques Cousteau discovered the wreck during the 1950s, but it was soon forgotten
about. The coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh opened the wreck to divers in the early 1990s.
Visitors can access the ship’s interior through an opening that was created during the disaster.
Most of the cargo remains inside to this day.
Many consider the Thistlegorm to be the world’s best wreck dive.
It sits roughly 100 feet (30 meters) beneath the surface, that’s about half as deep as The
Leaning Tower of Pisa is tall. Some advanced diving skills are required,
but the water is shallow enough not to need any special equipment.
9. THREE JUMBO JETS In 2015, the holdings operator for
Malaysia’s airports put an interesting notice in the newspaper. They were looking for the owner of
three Boeing 747 jumbo jets that had been parked outside Kuala Lumpur International Airport for
more than a year. The notice warned that if the owner didn’t come by and claim the planes within
two weeks, the operator reserved the right to sell or dispose of them. If that were to happen,
they would use the proceeds to cover the expenses and debts incurred from housing the aircraft.
Interestingly, the owner’s identity was not a mystery. Malaysia Airports
Holdings spokesperson Zainol Mohd Isa told Bloomberg News agency that the company had
initially been in contact with the person. The owner had been ignoring requests to come
and remove the 747s, which were taking up massive amounts of space in the parking bay.
While the holdings company declined to specifically identify the owner,
they hinted it was a defunct foreign airline. Aviation enthusiasts claimed
the planes were owned by Air Atlanta Icelandic and leased to Malaysia Airlines,
but both airlines confirmed that they no longer had any involvement with the jumbo jets.
After the notice was published, an air cargo company called Swift Air
claimed to own the planes but said that Malaysian authorities were
disputing their paperwork and refusing to give them access to the aircraft.
The managing director of Malaysia Airports told the press that numerous entities had claimed
ownership and that officials were struggling to trace who the 747s truly belonged to.
The planes ended up being scrapped and sold. 8. MV E EVANGELIA
Built in 1942, the 430-foot-long (131 meters) refrigerated cargo ship Empire Strength operated
under the British shipping company Blue Star Line until 1961. The ship is a little longer
than an American football field. During WWII, she transported frozen meat and other goods from
South America to Britain and the Mediterranean and between other destinations throughout the world.
A Greek company bought the vessel in 1965 and renamed it the E Evangelia. Three years later, in
1968, the ship ran aground in the Black Sea while sailing from Yugoslavia to Romania. She came to
rest in shallow waters off Costinești, where she still sits today and was declared a total loss.
Ever since the wreck, Evangelia’s demise has been shrouded in suspicion, with some believing
that it was destroyed for insurance money. Whether it’s true remains a mystery as the
ship continues to deteriorate near the shore. It’s become a popular tourist attraction,
although it’s visibly falling apart and might seem like an eyesore to some.
7. ANTONOV AN-225 MRIYA There was only one Antonov
An-225 in service before Russia invaded Ukraine, and it was a source of Ukrainian national pride.
It was reportedly destroyed on the fourth day of fighting at Gostomel Airport as the Russian
invasion advanced from the north. Devastating images of the crushed plane surrounded by debris
and unspent rounds of ammunition appeared in the media, confirming the An-225’s demise.
The Ukrainian-built Antonov An-225 Mriya was the world’s largest cargo airplane until
recently. Originally designed as a Soviet rocket transporter, it was also the longest-bodied,
longest-winged, and heaviest operational plane in the world, according to Aerotime Hub.
The An-225’s cargo hold could fit up to 50 cars, and it could even carry oversized items on top of
its fuselage. To accommodate its massive size and weight, its landing gear consisted of 32 wheels.
A specially designed retractable nose gear system enabled the plane to lower so that
cargo could be driven into the fuselage, where there was an onboard crane capable of lifting
over 60,000 pounds (30,000 kg) at a time. That’s about 16 times as heavy as an SUV.
Thanks to the enormous thrust of the aircraft’s six turbofan engines, it had a maximum payload
of 275 tons (250 metric tons). That’saround two-and-a-half times as heavy as a Blue Whale.
Speaking from in front of the wreck, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky described the loss of
the “crippled giant” as “emotionally difficult,” especially since he had seen it just days before
it was destroyed and abandoned. 6. MS WORLD DISCOVERER
The German-built cruise ship MS World Discoverer was a cruise ship that began operating after it
was built in 1974. It was designed to withstand the frigid Arctic environment and could even
navigate much of the icy Northwestern Passage, as well as the Antarctic.
The durable vessel unexpectedly met its end when it struck an uncharted
reef near the Solomon Islands in the year 2000. A ferry responded to the captain’s
distress signal and safely evacuated all the passengers. In the meantime,
the ship was listing, so the captain grounded it in Roderick Bay to prevent it from sinking.
Insurance inspectors classified the wreck as a loss. Ever since, the World Discoverer has sat,
neglected and slowly sinking, in the bay. It’s currently listing at 46 degrees and
is nearly laying on its side. Eventually, the vessel will slip completely beneath the waves.
Time, neglect, and the elements have heavily damaged the rusting and derelict ship.
Several companies have tried to salvage the World Discoverer over the years. But they
found that besides being damaged by Mother Nature,
locals had ransacked it during a violent civil war. Simply put, there was no saving the doomed
ship. The wreck is a popular tourist destination, but it probably won’t be there much longer.
Do you think the ship should be salvaged by the government, or should it be allowed to sink?
Let us know what you think in the comments and be sure to subscribe to the channel
before the end of the video. 5. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-83
There is an abandoned McDonnell Douglas MD 83 aircraft sitting in one of the eight parking
bays outside Swami Vivekanand Airport in Raipur, India, that hasn’t moved in years.
It made an emergency landing there in 2015 under the now-defunct Bangladeshi airline
United Airways when it experienced an engine failure during a flight from Dhaka to Muscat.
A few weeks later, a team from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh came and
inspected the aircraft, and its faulty engine was replaced a few months after
that. But the plane lacked an airworthiness certificate and therefore could not fly.
In the nearly 7 years since the MD 83 arrived at the airport,
it’s racked up a massive parking bill, yet as of mid-2021, nobody retrieved it. The
Airports Authority of India (AAI) began the legal process for getting the aircraft out
of its lot after years of trying to work something out with its owners.
The airline responded to the lawsuit with a request for nine months to sell the plane to cover
its parking dues. But it had reportedly broken its promises in the past, and the understandably
skeptical AAI was unsure of whether to accept the offer. They were eager to get the MD 83 out of
their parking bay so they could make full use of the airport’s limited space. It’s unclear whether
the plane is still parked there. 4. LA FAMILLE EXPRESS
Built during the early 1950s, the ship that eventually came to be known as La Famille
Express started out as a Soviet oil rig service vessel called the Fort Shevchenko.
It was decommissioned in 1992 before eventually finding new life as a regional freighter ship
operating in the Caribbean under its current name. By then, La Famille Express was in poor shape,
and it was used for transporting bulk rock, not exactly a job reserved for nice freighters.
During Hurricane Frances in 2004, high winds dragged the aging ship away from where it
was docked at Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It traveled roughly 12
miles (19 km) before coming to rest in its current location roughly two miles off Long Bay Beach.
The grounded shipwreck has since become a popular landmark among tourists, who typically reach
it by boat and jet-ski. Skilled kayakers and paddleboarders also sometimes make the journey.
The Turks and Caicos’ official tourism website warns visitors against climbing
onto the derelict wreck, which is rapidly decaying in the tropical marine environment.
Its deck and hull are filled with holes and covered in metal and glass shards.
Those who board the ship also risk exposure to hazardous dust and particles.
3. MYSTERIOUS WARPLANE GRAVEYARD In 2016, rumors circulated on social media about
an alleged warplane graveyard in central Texas containing the dilapidated remains of Cold War-era
U.S. military aircraft. Three men, including an aviation expert, a Fort Worth Aviation Museum
representative, and a railroad worker, found the site themselves and investigated its origins.
In an overgrown area outside the city of Temple, the planes comprise two Grumman F-14
Tomcats and one McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. Aircraft parts were strewn about the site,
and the old fighter planes were covered in weeds. They had sat at
the property for many years, and it was a surprising discovery for aviation experts.
To Fort Worth Aviation Museum Executive Director Jim Hodgson, it was disturbing.
He told the Houston Chronicle that their neglected condition was a disrespect to
the planes themselves, and also toward their role and symbolism in the country’s defense.
At the time of the discovery, Hodgson got in touch with the Naval Air Systems Command
(NAVAIR), which maintains naval aviation aircraft. Officials reportedly told him that
the planes were inoperable at a former naval air base that closed down during the 1980s.
A contractor was hired to transport them to a scrapyard, but they ended
up on someone’s private property. It appears as though the person didn’t finish the job,
leaving history and aviation enthusiasts alike feeling disappointed by how the
iconic aircraft were treated. It’s unclear why the retired warplanes were dumped at the site,
and little information has become available since news of the discovery broke.
2. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD 87 In recent years, airports in Spain have made
many headlines about what appears to be a growing problem of abandoned aircraft, with many wondering
where the planes came from and why they were left behind. One of them is a McDonnell Douglas MD87
medium-range commercial jet that appeared outside Adolfo Suárez Barajas Airport in Madrid in 2010.
Nicknamed the “ghost plane” by airport employees, it was still there as of 2019.
At some point, someone had come by and taped off its motors, but nobody knew who the mysterious
aircraft belonged to. Three years ago, airport director Elena Mayoral submitted
a notice to Spain’s national newspaper asking for anyone with information to come forward.
If the MD 87’s owner wasn’t identified within three months, the aircraft would be auctioned off,
with the proceeds going toward the national treasury. It’s likely that the owner hadn’t
returned for the plane because they faced a massive tax and parking bill.
Records found by Spain’s El Pais newspaper showed that a defunct Canary Islands-based airline called
Saicus Air had bought the MD 87 in 2010, just months before it went bankrupt. It’s unclear
whether authorities caught up with the company or if the plane ended up being sold at auction.
1. NIGERIA’S ABANDONED PLANES For years now, Nigeria has ranked as the world’s
top country for having the most unserviceable and abandoned aircraft at its airports.
In 2013, authorities ordered for the deserted planes to be cleared. Most were left behind by
defunct airlines that went out of business and simply left the vehicles to rot,
according to the country’s airport operations director Henry Omeogu.
65 planes were removed from airports across Nigeria that year.
The problem graced headlines yet again in 2021 after the Swiss-based firm CH
Aviation performed a study of countries with the most abandoned and unserviceable aircraft.
It’s an odd ranking for Nigeria, which does not rank among the world’s top aviation countries.
Yet, once again, deserted planes had accumulated outside the country’s
airports in numbers that were unheard of elsewhere.
Included among the seemingly ever-growing collection was at least one Airbus a340,
a long-range jet that can carry up to 370 passengers;
an Airbus a320, and dozens of other commercial planes that nobody cared to retrieve.
Researchers attributed the problem to many factors, including the tendency for airlines
to buy cheap jets that save money in the short run but come with an expensive maintenance routine.
The study also blamed Nigeria’s unstable government and its outdated
aviation policies and operations, which desperately need updating.
Once again, authorities ordered airports to clear out the abandoned planes as they
look for ways to prevent the issue from repeating itself yet again.
Thanks for watching! Which of these abandoned vehicles should be saved and restored? Share
your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe! See you next time, bye! :)