DALLAS – The “Palma Beach Hotel” ad is the first thing you’ll notice on this mysterious IL-76 that for decades sat abandoned by the E11 highway in Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates.
Passers-by would surely have seen it rotting under dust and sand. The plane arouses great curiosity among passers-by; that it is even a listed attraction on Trip Advisor. Well, it looks like it won’t be a landmark anymore because the end has come for the dead too – the IL-76 is finally going to be scrapped, in fact the process has already begun.
“The plane is being dismantled. The demolition started a few days ago,” said a security officer near the site, as reported in the Khaleej Times.
No one knows how long it will take to undress her. Most of the aircraft components, including the engines, are next to the aircraft. The question is when and why did this beast of a plane end up in a desert in the middle of nowhere?
Many theories revolve around this particular aircraft. The IL-76 is believed to have last landed here between 1999 and 2000. UAQ was a popular airfield which then offered skydiving although the runway was unpaved.
A past to remember
You might be surprised at how well this plane has witnessed over time. Silent and dusty now, it performed all manner of flights decades ago.
She started as a member of the army of the Soviet Union among the thousands of Ilyushins. The type itself was introduced to replace older An 12s specifically for strategic cargo missions with landing and takeoff on short airstrips in any condition.
According to the Aero Transport Data Bank, the plane was built in 1975 in the part of the Soviet Union that is now Uzbekistan. In the early 1980s, it carried the registration CCCP-86715 under the army. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it flew for the Russian Air Force under the registration RA-86715, then in the 1990s it was sold to the Air Cess airline, based in Sharjah.
This is where things changed, when Air Cess, a company owned by Sergei Bout, brother of Viktor Bout, who was then an active arms dealer. Initially, it was headquartered in Belgium but soon moved to Sharjah. The aircraft, however, was last registered under Centrafrican Airlines, which was another Bout holding.
The UN has firmly stated that Centrafrican is owned by Viktor Bout, “Although he is not involved in the day-to-day management of the business, UN investigators have found that Bout signs the sale and purchase contracts aircraft, as well as lease documents, for the company.The company has been linked to numerous illicit arms shipments to conflict zones.
Central African airlines
In 2005, the United Nations Security Council Committee (under Resolution 1521) concerning Liberia and the regime of Charles Taylor decided to add individuals and entities to the assets freeze list. Centrafrican Airlines was on the list.
The report stated: “The Central African Republic’s role in Liberia’s arms trade was uncovered when UN investigators found film footage of Liberian rebels handling nine Strela surface-to-air missiles.
“These missiles appear to correspond to an illegal arms shipment organized by [arms dealer and Bout associate] Sanjivan Ruprah and delivered to Liberia in May 2000 by an Ilyushin IL-76 belonging to Centrafrican Airlines. Centrafrican has also been involved in other arms shipments, including the attempted sale of two refurbished Mi-24 attack helicopters to Liberia.
The United Arab Emirates, however, banned Bout from entering the country in the early 2000s. He was later arrested in the United States and continues to serve his 25-year sentence.
Merchant of Deatha book about Viktor Bout was written by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, who said the arms dealer (Bout) “sold the plane to an advertising agency in the United Arab Emirates, promising to turn it into a billboard ‘posting along the dark road’.
There were plans to turn it into a restaurant but that didn’t take off either. It is therefore well and truly farewell to an aircraft with a fascinating past.
Featured Image: The Abandoned Aircraft: Ilyushin IL-76 at UAQ. Photo: technical knowledge via Youtube.
