Malaysian airport officials are searching for the owner of three abandoned Boeing 747 jets left unclaimed at an airport for more than a year.
A notice was placed in the English-language national daily newspaper, The Star, requesting the owner collect the jets within two weeks from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
If left unclaimed, the operator, Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB), “reserves the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft”.
Money raised from the sale of the three Boeing 747 -200Fs would be used to pay off expenses and debts, says the notice.
General manager of MAHB, Zainol Mohd Isa, told AFP: “I don’t know why they are not responding. There could be many reasons. Sometimes it could be because they have no money to continue operations.”
He also raised the issue of the parking fee: “Where do we send the bill?”
MAHB said in a statement: "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 whereby exhaustive steps undertaken to find a contact person have not been successful."
According to local newspaper The Malay Mail, the notice is a last-ditch effort to find the owner after the operator failed to locate them despite having the aircraft’s registration numbers.
The registration numbers as identified in the notice are: TF-ARM, TF-ARN and TF-ARH.
Aviation enthusiasts linked two of the abandoned jets to Malaysian Airlines (MAS) and Air Atlanta Icelandic, saying the latter leased the planes to MAS’ cargo section, MasKargo.
Both MAS and Air Atlantic Icelandic have denied any link to the aircrafts.
