Well, we have all sorts of stuff reported in the lost and found posts on Javea Connect… you know, the usual dogs, cats, keys, phones and even a ferret! Now and again you may forget where the hell you parked your car .. BUT it seems that there has been quite a few forgetful pilots about in Valencia!
Las Provincias has reported that airport authorities have identified no less than 24 planes, of different types, that “are in an obvious state of abandonment” and remain parked up at the airport facilities.
Airport sources point out that they are almost all light aircraft, but there is even a Boeing 747, that has been abandoned on site!
Consequently, a process has been initated that will culminate with the declaration of abandonment as a first step so that the authorities can proceed to auction the planes.
But to do this, they must open a complicated and long legal process that involves, among other actions, the publication of three advertisements in three consecutive months in the State Bulletin with the objective that the owners of the aircraft proceed to claim them and take charge of them.
In the event that no claim is forthcoming by the owner, one year must pass from the date of the third publication before the legal process of abandonment of the aircraft can begin .
From that point, they will proceed to sell the machines at public auction. The amount obtained at the end of the process will go to the state coffers, less expenses.
The Boeing 747
Most of the aircraft that have been included in the initiated process are light aircraft. But among them is a Boeing 747, the KC-ERP, which has been sat at Valencia airport for almost a decade. This aircraft has its own history.
At the time of the immobiliary boom at the beginning of the 21st century, some businessmen sought investments in airlines. The subsequent financial crisis and the bursting of that bubble, threw some of these projects on the junk heap.
This was the case of one businessman who acquired the Boeing 747 that at the time was named ‘Arca de Torretallada’. His intention was to create an air freight company but that eventually went down the pan because of the general crisis at that time.
The aircraft was acquired by Pronair Airlines, a company formed by Murcia businessman Isidoro Romero López, linked to the world of construction.
The firm, which started in 2007 and was based at Valencia airport, bought two Boeing 747s from Air France, but their ideas “crashed” with the economic crisis. This plane, in particular, had a rough journey, as it came to a standstill in Pakistan after the breakdown of one of its engines which was never fully repaired.
The embargo on the aircraft has made Valencia airport its last destination to date. Even in 2013, a court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife auctioned the plane for 2.1 million euros because of the debts accumulated by the owner of the company. But it is still sitting there, seemingly enjoying its retirement in the sun.
With the decision of the Valencia airport to urge the abandonment declaration process, the veteran apparatus may have started its last journey.
The rest of the planes that have entered the process opened by the airport are much smaller including several different models of Cessna, some Pipers and a few other makes that we car driving folk, have probably never heard of!
