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I'm reading through TheStar's "Malaysia Airports seeks owner of three Boeing 747s abandoned at KLIA" article and I can't stop wondering, why I don't understand it or how should I understand it?

How it is possible in 21th century, that knowing large passenger aircraft's (a) type, (b) current location and (c) registration it is still impossible to find actual aircraft's owner in a matter of minutes?

Don't we have aircraft's databases, to obtain this information? Or to use it to track any passenger aircraft latest flights? Is it possible, that Kuala Lumpur International Airport does not have any records or tracks of what (owned by whom) and when landed on their grounds?

I know that this isn't possible, but for a newbie like me this article sound like a joke rather than a current reality in aviation industry today.

Pondlife
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trejder
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    Wish I had the kind of money it takes to casually misplace a billion dollars worth of planes... – corsiKa Dec 09 '15 at 08:00
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    With corporate transactions, and possibly a bankruptcy or two, not knowing (or disagreeing on) who owns what exactly can happen very quickly. – DevSolar Dec 09 '15 at 09:25
  • I could agree to your point of view, but there's one thing. IMHO during bankruptcy, a plane as valuable as even 20 years old B747 (not mentioning three of them) would be an important asset. Important enough to not just leave it somewhere. Company that goes down has a lot of debts. Many of these could be paid by using that asset. Am I right? I know, that these are just speculations, but in my opinion they support theory, that this article says about something strange or even hard to believe. – trejder Dec 09 '15 at 09:35
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    If the operators of the bankrupt company are dishonest then they may lie to the bankruptcy court about it's assets either with the intent of stealing them later or just because they want to screw the creditors. – Peter Green Dec 09 '15 at 11:48
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    @trejder But you have to pay the parking fee first. KLIA charges 0.5RM for every 10sqm2 outdoor parking every 12hrs. Parking cost 260 thousand USD for each year. – Him Dec 09 '15 at 15:46
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    It could be that the current owner doesn't want to be found, whether because he/it owes money that he doesn't want to pay, is attempting to avoid taxes, or any number of other nefarious reasons. Pure speculation, of course, but more likely than Delta (or Air Atlanta Icelandic) pilot getting drunk at the airport bar, walking to the hotel and forgetting where he parked... :) – FreeMan Dec 09 '15 at 17:32
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    @corsiKa While that would be nice, in this case, the planes are not worth anything close to a billion. A few million, perhaps. They're over 35 years old and probably not airworthy after sitting there that long. The cost of paying the owed parking fees and restoring them to airworthiness to move them may well exceed their value. – reirab Dec 09 '15 at 21:11
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    There is a very good chance the planes will never be claimed. The debt on the plane is more than its worth. – BAR Dec 10 '15 at 00:10
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    It's likely these planes aren't airworthy. Furthermore, it's not that they can't trace the owner, it's that they are publishing the required legal notices in case someone else has an interest in them. – Loren Pechtel Dec 10 '15 at 04:33

3 Answers3

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Every country handles aircraft registration differently (but generally similar). Im sure Boeing could tell you who they originally delivered the airframe to but if it was sold from there it could legally go anywhere and would only be subject to local registration legislation.

Here in the US you can look up aircraft owners by N number but not all countries may keep a record like that and as far as I know there is no global aircraft registry.

it is still impossible to find actual aircraft's owner in a matter of minutes

Knowing who the owner is and finding the owner are two very different things.

According to this article

Several aviation databases list the Boeings -- identified by their call signs TF-ARN, TF-ARH, TF-ARM -- as belonging to leasing firm Air Atlanta Icelandic, but that company says it sold them in 2008.

Since then, the aircraft appear to have changed hands several times.

Malaysia Airports says it's entitled to sell the Boeings under the country's civil aviation regulations if no owner comes forward.

So it seems they do know who owned them at some point (most likely the last people to put readable registration numbers on them).

Jamiec
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Dave
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  • Thanks for a good answer. I still can imagine, though, that KLIA doesn't have any record on when these planes landed for the last time and what was plane's operator during that last flight. – trejder Dec 08 '15 at 19:20
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    They may know who landed them and when but if the planes were parked and sold (multiple times at that) the responsibility lies with the current owner and the original seller may be of little help aside from a courteous finger point to the next link in the chain. – Dave Dec 08 '15 at 19:27
  • Do you mean, that they were parked like months or years ago and sold during parking? Who then paid for parking fees? Why did KLIA started the case right now and didn't put any interest during those months or years, these planes were parked on their grounds. This certainly is a mystery case for newbie like me. – trejder Dec 08 '15 at 19:32
  • Thats possible the facts all still seem a bit unknown, maybe someone was paying, maybe KLIA over looked the fact that no one was paying or maybe KLIA was billing someone and only now has sent it to a collection situation. While I admin its a strange situation sometimes the natural course of these events takes time to unfold. Someone may step up tomorrow as the owner, who knows. – Dave Dec 08 '15 at 20:02
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    @trejder Well, apparently, nobody was paying for the parking fees, which is why the airport is trying to sell the planes to recover the fees it's owed. – David Richerby Dec 08 '15 at 21:40
  • @DavidRicherby Sure thing. But the question is not about, why airport is trying to sell these planes (quite obvious, as you point out), but how it is possible in 21th century, that airport is unable to establish, who is that planes' owner. Notice, that this article is not talking about the fact, that airport can't get owner to pay his dues. It is about the fact, that airport does not know the owner. This is the strange part of the article (and the reason for this question) for me. Not the part about selling these planes. – trejder Dec 09 '15 at 09:38
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    @trejder You brought up the parking fees and asked who is paying them, so it's a bit rich of you to ding me for drifting off-topic when I'm responding directly to you. Clearly, if they knew who paid the parking fees, that would give them information about who owned the planes. The fact that they don't know who owns the planes strongly implies that the parking fees aren't being paid. – David Richerby Dec 09 '15 at 09:59
  • If at one moment AAI owned the aircraft, then unless they show an evidence of the sale, they are assumed to be the owner and must pay. If they are not the owner then the sale evidence will include the identification of the buyer. The story being still unsolved means important details are missing. – mins Dec 09 '15 at 19:04
  • @mins According to CNN, it appears that the aircraft have been sold several times since AAI owned them, so it appears that they already have produced evidence of having sold them. – reirab Dec 09 '15 at 20:51
  • @reirab: So the same process should be possible until a buyer cannot show any evidence of a sale. This one is the assumed to be the owner and a legal action can be initiated if necessary. – mins Dec 09 '15 at 21:33
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There's certainly some missing details in that story. Two minutes with Google shows that (a) the prefix "TF" refers to Iceland, and (b) those three aircraft were most recently registered to Air Atlanta Icelandic, some sort of charter/cargo operator.

What's missing from that news story is that surely the Malaysian authorities have already done the above, and have been unable to contact the registered owner for whatever reason.

Interesting is that the Air Atlanta Icelandic fleet as listed by ch-aviation does not include those three registration numbers. So maybe they've been sold to someone else.

Greg Hewgill
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    http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2015/12/08/air-atlanta-returned-aircraft/ – Sam Dec 09 '15 at 16:38
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The article in the Guardian said that they think they know who the owner is on paper, but that company isn't contactable. Taking out advertisements in major newspapers (within the same jurisdiction, then covered as news by the world's press) is likely to be a step towards giving due notice before reposessions proceedings can start, to give the real owner time to respond.

Chris H
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    +1 for first legal steps toward being able to lien against them or some sort of similar asset takeover. I wouldn't be surprised if these aircraft were left in this particular location because of the specific rules in the jurisdiction. – blaughw Dec 09 '15 at 17:17