Most of these contain an engine and one would think that would be worth a few k as a core. Also the airframe could be broken and sold off for parts – even on US Ebay.
Or is there some sort of “story” behind some of these e.g. unpaid parking/handling fees? Otherwise, the only story I can imagine is that the owner doesn’t need the money…
In southern Europe, many houses are abandoned because the family has dispersed but retains a romantic attachment to the family home, and they can’t agree on what to do with it. But nobody can have a romantic attachment to a rusting piece of wreckage which will eventually fall apart and unlike a derelict house has no intrinsic “land” value.
I just know one story from Germany.
The owner has left the country (for whatever reason) and not picked up his plane after annual.
So it is sitting there. After a few years (12 so far) the value of the plane is lower than the cost of having it auctioned.
As long it isn’t in the way, it will rot there.
The last pic is Santorini. It must be virtually impossible to move an aircraft away from the island after it’s condition has sufficiently deteriorated, so this explains it. No idea about the other pictures …
Abandoned aircraft in the open are uncommon here in Austria. But in “my” hangar, about a third of the aircraft have not flown since I moved in 3 years ago. This affects aircraft of all sizes and categories. A Cessna 150, a Piper 140 and two motorgliders seem to be most neglected. But there are also a FW149 and a (rather new) Mooney that are just standing around. There is even an Aerostar which has circumnavigated the world once, according to the stickers on the fuselage, but I have only once seen it in the air.
The last pic is Santorini. It must be virtually impossible to move an aircraft away from the island after it’s condition has sufficiently deteriorated, so this explains it. No idea about the other pictures …
Those Santorini ones (taken in 2005) contained four engines, probably IO540s, and you could strip them out, sea freight them to the USA for about €1000, and slip some Greek scrap merchant a few hundred € to dispose of the airframes (having removed any value parts like door handles, levers, trim wheels, etc). A guaranteed €10k, IMHO.
The others were at Barcelona/Sabadell. A huge pile sitting there. Another half a dozen were sitting at Granada (maybe not anymore since the parking fees became nontrivial).
I think maybe the owners don’t want to be found, in some cases.
But nobody can have a romantic attachment to a rusting piece of wreckage which will eventually fall apart
I think that’s where you’re incorrect for some people. Owners get old or get into a ‘temporary’ financial situation and don’t like to sell the plane because being the owner forms part of their self image.
Locally we have a couple of places where old planes are parked, one of which is called ‘skid row’ because it was once (40+ years ago) populated with tail wheel aircraft, Cubs etc, left to die when worth $3K or less then restored later when people regained interest in them. The only problem was when a drunk drove off an adjacent road one time, through a fence, across a drainage ditch and into several planes. That was the end of a few of them.
My current plane (the one I fly weekly) sat outside unflown for five years but the owner was disciplined enough to run it occasionally, keep the canopy covered, and get it annualed every other year or so. The reason for that situation was divorce and lack of money to fix some problems. It’s all fixed now with $5-10K invested and a fair bit of effort. Still needs a paint job but otherwise working great with under 1000 hrs TTAE. Prior to the 5 year period under distressd ownership it had been well kept by the same previous owner for 28 years (I made contact with him and although too old to fly now he gave me a tremendous amount of info including many slides, now digitized, going back to new)
Perhaps a better story is the Luscombe that a ‘serial restorer’ friend flies. He pulled it off a ramp in the desert where it had sat under baking sun for 30 years. It took a year to get it out of the owners hands but eventually he paid $5K and trailered it home. Dirt had accumulated thickly on every surface inside and out, all the windows were opaque and most of the paint had flaked off. I helped him take it apart and it was hard to distinguish individual components due to the dirt. But there was no corrosion and (miraculously for a Luscombe) no prior accident damage. About two years and $35K later it flew again and now looks like new. The engine overhaul with new cylinders was $21K, done by one of the best known shops. Photos were sent to the previous owner who had kept the plane because his dad had it for decades before passing away. Then it sat for three more decades. A lucky plane!
I just look at them as stock for future projects.
About the SANTORINI aircraft,I have seen it for ages in that same position.I think it is an Islander or Partenavia.
As far as I can remember,a local wealthy businessman joined forces with local council and bought it as an ambulance.
The place is universaly famous and attracts many tourists and VIPs. Accidents happen though.The island’s image suffered a lot
because of very inadequate medical services.Just a handful of doctors with a few means.Any accident at this time required the
takeoff of a Hercules C130 from Athens which resulted in a min. 6 hour turnaround time.
Endless conflict between the locals and CAA and National Health System Ambulance,resulted in the defeat of the former and
abandoning the whole scheme.Same like the story with amphibians.You cannot defeat the Beast./
The examples from Europe here (Spain and Greece), both come from countries that were / are severely impacted by the financial – and in their cases societal – meltdown. I can only speak of Spain, but for many people there the fall was precipitous, literally going from millionaire to pauper overnight. The airplanes, often bought not so much because people wanted or needed them, but simply because they could buy them, are the last thing on their mind. Also – who would they sell them to? There’s no local market and disassembly and shipping to the US as you suggest costs time, money and energy. All in short supply. As an add-on, in the south of Spain there are some smaller airfields with a collection of rotting planes that were involved in drug running and got impounded. Given the speed of the Spanish justice system (or anything else down there), they’ll prob99 sit abandoned until trees have grown through them.
There have been some abandoned foreign aircraft at my local airport far up North as well. Typically they have been held by some insurance company or bank because the owner has not paid or gone bankrupt or similar. Then they just stay until they start falling apart. There was one twin turbo prop (King Air I think), that stood there for a couple of years, but eventually got a better faith. A local Helicopter company started “feeling sorry” for the aircraft and took it into their hangar. It didn’t look too bad at all except for one badly corroded engine. They asked around and got it for a symbolic price. But then they run out of capacity to fix it, so they advertised it for sale. Three guys from the US came almost immediately. They spent a week getting the engines running (corrosion and all), and flew it to the US for some more fixing, and then sold it, probably made lots of money. Anyway, that was how they made a living, fixing up and selling abandoned airplanes.
Anyway, that was how they made a living, fixing up and selling abandoned airplanes.
That’s what I call a romantic way to make a living 
…
They’re everywhere.
Right next to me on the ramp is an old 150 with flat tires, corrosion and opaque windows that hasn’t flown for over 10 years. It’s so far beyond saving it will never fly again. Yet, the widow of the owner pays the tie down fees every month and will continue to do so until she dies. Emotional attachment.
Where I service my Aerostar there sits another Aerostar rotting away. Father died and now the kids squabble on how to divide the assets. Plane sits there year in and year out and corroding away. So sad. I even made a half hearted attempt at taking it off them for spares, but they weren’t that interested.
