The below haunting photographs
show the eerie tourist attractions where abandoned jets have been thrown to rot
in Thailand. The derelict shells of two abandoned aeroplanes left by a cash
strapped investor in Thailand to rot. The MD-82 jets were earlier operated by
Orient Thai Airlines, are now at the mercy of the elements in Bangkok after a
business venture to use them as a bar failed.
This year, 36 year old photographer Dax Ward
took the stunning images of unconventional site, to take a peek inside the stripped
aeroplanes. The Bangkok based photographer took the hobby photography as a
challenge. He’s is actually a technology teacher explains, the aeroplanes were
supposedly placed here few years ago by a foreign investor to create a special
outdoor bar using the fuselage as a stage for the bands and service rooms for
the bar crew. Hence, the project was a fiasco and the foreign investor left the
site as it is. Currently, there’s no plan to move them, as land upon which they
rest is extremely expensive.
However the registration numbers
of the two aeroplanes have been painted over, so it is difficult to decipher
when the planes were operated or retired. The plane interiors were mostly
stripped away to show the bare bones of massive crafts, but the carpeting overhead
bins and bathrooms remain intact. Moreover, echoing the obliteration of a plane
crash, oxygen masks, safety manuals and other debris are also scattered about
the hollowed out craft. Indeed, it is very eerie in the graveyard. The children
toys and other personal objects scattered around left by people who have stayed
there for whatever reason, almost making it feel like a crash site.
The Thai culture often observe
such places as haunted, no one has actually passed away at the location. The tourists
are charged 300 baht per person and the place is looked after by a lady who
lives on the site with her extended family in some converted fuselages. Thailand
is a country that thrives with culture, and such lively cultures tend to also
include a deeply-rooted spiritual dimension. So, it's is filled with ghost
stories and irrational belief regarding spirits and locations which are haunted
by them. Such dogmas of a haunting can also arise simply because a site looks
scary, which is why I think the graveyard would have such an image.
Hence, I'm pretty happy exploring
the site alone and take these photos. Also, there is generally someone hanging
around the locations, be it human or animal, so I’m rarely completely
alone. As I'm not acquainted with
aeronautical design so it is interesting for me to see the diverse levels in
the plane and to get a sense of its actual size. In fact it is really
impressive feat in engineering and physics that permits for such large, heavy
objects to be propelled through the sky at high speeds.