Recently, an interesting story was published in the UAE press by the Soviet IL-76 cargo plane, which is currently abandoned in the area of the Palma Beach Hotel in Umm Al-Quwain.
The plane was built in 1975 in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. In the early eighties, the ship operated voyages for freight transportation (under registration number CCCP-86715). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the aircraft was used by the Russian Air Force (reg. No. RA 86715), and then, in the early nineties, it was sold to Air Cess, located in Sharjah.
Air Cess belonged to Sergey Bout, the brother of the infamous Viktor Bout, accused of arms trafficking, who became the prototype of the Hollywood hero played by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 film The Armory Baron.
Originally registered in Belgium, the airline moved to Sharjah in 1997. Then, after being accused of 146 violations of the Civil Aviation Law brought forward by South African Civil Aviation, Air Cess was disbanded.
In fact, the airline was reorganized, and in 1998 its name was changed to Centrafrican. To date, the plane in Umm al-Quwain is listed as “abandoned,” but its last registered owner is Centrafrican. The company finally completed its activities in 2001, Viktor Bout is prohibited from entering the UAE since the early 2000s.
A book written in 2008 by Douglas Farah says: "One of the former Russian aviation officials, after reviewing the story of Viktor Bout, offered $ 20,000 to the pilot to fly through the desert of the United Arab Emirates to this abandoned monument to Soviet aviation."
The airfield at Umm Al Quwain was closed five years ago. In 2012, Victor Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Charles Taylor - to 50. IL-76 slowly rots in the sun, sadly recalling the past.
