They came for what everybody in Michigan goes to the UP for - Pasties!
Posted on 07/13/2010 1:50:41 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
One morning last July, a Russian-made military plane landed at an airport near this Lake Superior town.
Nine men with foreign accents disembarked. Some went off to eat and shop. When they returned, a flock of federal agents and local police were waiting. Five men were taken to jail. The plane, an Ilyushin IL-78, had come from Texas, bound for Pakistan. "All of us were trying to figure out what they were picking up or smuggling," says Cheryl Hill, assistant prosecutor of Marquette County. Capt. David Lemire of the Marquette County Sheriff's Office says, "People to this day still ask, 'What's up with that plane?"'
Not much. Nearly a year later, the 231-ton Cold War leftover remains at Sawyer International Airport, leaking fuel and luring birds.
It's an albatross of sorts for this Upper Peninsula county, which owns the airport and went months without being paid almost $4,000 for storage and maintenance.
At 231 tons, a Russian-made Ilyushin IL-78 is one of the bigger planes to have landed at Sawyer International Airport in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. .Ms. Hill and others here still aren't sure why the plane wound up in their backyard, but now, she says, "I can't get rid of the damn thing."
The Soviet Union used similar Ilyushins in its 1980s war with Afghanistan. The tankers are equipped to refuel jets in midair and can be converted for carrying cargo or fighting fires.
The aircraft stranded in Michigan was built in 1988, says Gary Fears, a Boca Raton, Fla., entrepreneur whose family trust controls Air Support Systems LLC, which bought the Ilyushin for about $4 million in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Odd story.
The last few times I went through BWI they had a soviet transport sitting beside the runway.
I thought it weird, but I was on Southwest for a ride home, and was much more concerned with getting there...
I wonder how many of these birds are floating around.
There has to be quite a few around the world.
Volga-Dniper was contracted to move heavy factory parts for Boeing out of STL about 10 years ago. They flew the -124, though..
I remember seeing a HUGE Soviet aircraft at KSTL in the 90’s. I was thinking at the time it was that Antonov An-225. My recall is fuzzy now. I remember hearing on the radio that it was waiting for late night when the density altitude dropped enough. It couldn’t take off during the heat of the day.
Thank you for that bit of info. AFter poking around the internet for photos, that -124 indeed was what I saw.
Could be a dirty bomb waiting to be exploded...
It’s a shame that bird is sitting and rotting instead of doing what it was designed to do. Il-78s are damn good aircraft.
They came for what everybody in Michigan goes to the UP for - Pasties!
In the UP? Who would notice?
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
lol!!
PFL
More Russian Spies? Anna Chapman’s twin was aboard, potentially? VDV checking out KI Sawyer Airport?
Considering that it used to be known as K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, and B-52s used to be stationed there, I somehow doubt that.
Lovingly known as K. I. Siberia.
A much nicer specimen than those we see in and out of Kandahar everyday...
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