Nicosia. Airport ghost Bashny.Net

Nicosia - one of the few world capitals without its own airport. Rather, the airport is, but it is closed on July 20, 1974, when Turkish troops landed on the territory of Cyprus. UN peacekeepers have decided that the airport must not go to any of the parties. In the end, time has stopped here.
26 photos from here

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2. The airport was the main Nicosia, Cyprus from the beginning of the thirties. March 27, 1968, for 6 years prior to the war in Cyprus, was to build a modern terminal at that time. The construction spent more than a million pounds. The new terminal can simultaneously serve 11 aircraft and up to 800 passengers.



3. It even flew Aeroflot planes.



4. Getting to the airport for me started with the control tower.



5. That's how she looked forty years ago.



6. And now looks. Time mercilessly.



7. Despite the devastation, a feeling that people have gone away recently. Corroded forty years of iron boxes with cards apparently discovered in a hurry.



8. The best views of the area opens from the roof control tower, there was a radio operator room.



9. From here I was able to take down a UN helicopter, carrying out training flights over the airport.



10. It can be seen there and the building of a new airport terminal. So it looked in the early seventies.



11. And so today. Glass shattered, the letters crumble, there are traces of the shots.



12. Inside - concertina wire, a collection of posters of 1974 and not a single person.



13. In the middle of the room facing the plate - the inscription Tipping porters not allowed. Last porter left here forty years ago.



14. Forty years is fly only painted on the walls of airplanes.



15. In the kitchen cupboard for forty years there is no smell of fresh dishes.



16. The main attraction of the airport - one of the two planes destroyed the Turkish troops - Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident in the coloring of Cyprus Airways.



17. Here it is against the background of the terminal in the early seventies.



18. And this is how it looked to the next day after the bombing. Damaged but not yet spoiled



19. His colleagues were not so lucky. War is war.



20. As a result of the bombing, "landed" the entire fleet of the airline Cyprus Airways, which consisted at the time of the five aircraft. Two other Trident and BAC1-11 suffered less. After 3 years after the war, the British experts have repaired them (using, including parts from the destroyed aircraft) and they are on their own left the airport of Nicosia. By the way, it was the last departure from the airport. Today is one of Trident (in the coloring of airline British European Airways) is the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. BAC1-11 flying the flag of Cyprus Airways until 1995.



21. Status Trident Nicosia airport is clearly not a museum - room completely ransacked, smashed glass, the fuselage - the marks of bullets.



22. Another plane at the airport of Nicosia - war Avro Shackleton MR.3 XF700. In 1962 he made an emergency landing, repair recognized unprofitable - the plane was used as a trainer.



23. As you can see, the war did not spare it.



24. August 29, 1973, a year before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Czechoslovakia Tu-104 flew from Damascus, skidded off the airport strip Nicosia. No one was killed, but the aircraft was not subject to the Restitution. That looked like a plane the next day after the incident.



25. The aircraft bought enterprising Cypriot - say, almost everything was ready to turn it into a restaurant, but the plan has prevented the war. Today tail carcasses, which viewed the Czechoslovak flag is controlled by Turkish troops in the area.



26. Nicosia - Airport without a future. Many facilities are in poor condition. Even if united Cyprus and the last "Berlin Wall" on the territory of modern Europe will be removed, the airport of Nicosia would be no use to anyone - for forty years on the island was built three major civilian airport for a small island it's a lot.



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