KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 ― The mystery for the owner of three Boeing 747-200F planes abandoned at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang is likely to continue for a while, despite the efforts of some intrepid Malaysian armchair detectives.
Both Air Atlanta Icelandic and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have denied they are the current owners of the planes linked by some amateur sleuths intrigued by the bizarre notice placed by Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd in the classifieds section of The Star newspaper two days ago.
“If it was ours, we would have claimed it,” an unnamed officer with Malaysia’s national airline was quoted saying by The Star Online in a report last night.
In a separate report, the news portal reported Air Atlanta Icelandic confirming it used to own the three Boeing planes bearing the registration numbers TF-ARM, TF-ARN and TF-ARH.
However, the Icelandic airliner’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing Baldvin M. Hermannsson said his company was not the current owner and that two aircraft were deregistered from Iceland’s Civil Aviation Authority in June 2011 while the third has its name removed in January 2012.
“Air Atlanta Icelandic does not have any knowledge of who the current owner of these aircraft is today, and has nothing to do with these aircraft today,” Hermannsson was quoted as saying in an email response to The Star Online.
Using the limited description provided in the notice which they ran through Google, some Internet users claimed the original owner of the planes to be Air Atlanta Icelandic.
According to some, these three commercial jets were later leased to MAS, with one dating back to 2003.
In its Monday advertisement, Malaysia Airports said it was looking to find the rightful owner of the unclaimed planes and may sell them off within 14 days of the notice being published.
It is unknown how long the commercial planes have been parked at KLIA.
