Turkish Airlines disabled aircraft transforming into an Aircraft Museum
October 24, 2016 – Kathmandu
“Good news, I bought a beautiful wide body of Airbus-330 from Turkish. I will fill up the soul inside it and make a beautiful Aviation Museum in Kathmandu. For this project, I am spending a big amount earned through a hardship, risk of life by flying and working abroad in extremely bad weather, critical airports in odd hours missing the motherland, family and friends. It is not my choice to miss my beautiful country with magnificent snowcapped mountains. All Necon Air pilots had to go abroad when Necon got closed in 2004. I had to follow them because there was no job in Nepal. I missed Nepal for a long time however I keep coming back every alternate month. Today I am extremely happy to present a beautiful Aviation Museum to my lovely nation in 6 months. I am expecting your moral support for our new mission.”
Captain Bed Upreti shares his happiness in social media after confirming the purchase of the disabled Turkish Airlines Airbus 300-300 aircraft that crashed while landing at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) March 04, 2015 skidding off the runway after slightly missing the touch down zone on landing. The disabled aircraft that costs around 22 Billion while functioning lies unusable at East helipad site of TIA. The technical team of Turkish Technic team has made agreement with Capt. Upreti for the handing over the disabled aircraft. The price of the aircraft that Capt. Upreti will pay to purchase the aircraft has not been disclosed yet by both the parties.
Two years ago, Capt. Upreti initiated an aircraft museum in Dhangadi for the first time in Nepal. The museum which is popular among people now was established using a Cosmic Air’s disabled 110 seats Fokker aircraft. The installation cost him around 15 Million rupees and the whole aircraft was broken into three parts and transported inside the lorry trucks. The museum is now a most visit place for the internal tourists as well as other Indian tourists of Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
The Turkish Airlines aircraft would be used as museum in Kathmandu around TIA as it would be very difficult to carry the large wide body fuselage of Airbus 330-300 aircraft that is 208 feet long, 55 feet high and 197 feet broad. The museum will focus on providing awareness among people regarding challenges in Nepal’s aviation as well as the international aviation world.
Mr. Upreti, also informed that around 300 other model aircraft will also be featured inside the museum including sections for pilot and cabin crew trainings. The completion of the museum establishment will take around 6 to 8 months at a cost of around 50 million the Trust for aircraft purchase informed.
The valuable and serviceable parts are being taken off the aircraft since two months and the technical team had already announced the sale of the remaining unusable skin of the aircraft. Turkish Airlines is one among the few airliners that fly bigger jets in Nepal. Turkish Airlines has been serving in Kathmandu-Istanbul route by its Airbus 330 series aircraft that can carry 440 passengers on board.
