Lost property: Malaysia seeks owners of three Boeing 747s abandoned at airport

Malaysia’s airport operator is seeking the “untraceable” owner of three unclaimed double-decker passenger jets that have been parked and left at Kuala Lumpur international airport for more than a year.

The operator, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, placed a notice this week in the English-language daily newspaper the Star, saying that if the Boeing 747-200F planes were not collected within two weeks, “we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft”.

It said the money raised would be used to pay off expenses and due debts to the airport for housing the jumbo jets.

Zainol Mohd Isa, the contact person listed in the advertisement, told Bloomberg news agency the planes had been sitting on the tarmac for more than a year and that although the owner was known, they had not been in contact over the removal of the planes.

“We have been in communication with the so-called owner, but they have not been responding to take away the aircraft. That’s why we go through this process to legalise whatever actions we want to take,” Zainol said. “We want to clear the area, we want to utilise our parking bay.”

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Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd hinted in a statement that the owner was a defunct international firm. “The giving of such notice by way of advertisement is a common and reasonable step in the process of debt recovery especially in cases where the company concerned has ceased operations and is a foreign entity,” it said.

The mystery comes during a difficult period in Malaysian aviation. In July, carrier AirAsia complained that the tarmac at a new international terminal for budget airlines in Kuala Lumpur was sinking, with water pooling on the taxiways.

The international airport was also the origin of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared with 239 passengers and crew aboard on 8 March, 2014. A small section from the plane’s wing washed up hundreds of miles west on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean earlier this year.

Aviation enthusiasts say two of three abandoned planes were leased to Malaysia Airlines’ cargo section, MasKargo, from Air Atlanta Icelandic.

Malaysia Airlines and Air Atlanta Icelandic told the Straits Times newspaper they no longer owned or leased the jets.