Heres a fun story for this Friday.

"Milky" (jordanmielke) 01/11/2019 at 13:35 • Filed to: Sawyer, I-L 78 Ilyushin, IL78, Sawyer AFB

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For the last decade there has been ex soviet, Ukrainian crew’d, heading for Pakistan, for hire air-tanker, seized at an airport in rural Michigan.

From what I’ve read it took off in Texas and did damage to the airport, was headed to Pakistan, for an un-known job, denied entry to Canadian airspace, seized by the department of defense for being a “weapon of war” and the Ukrainian crew was sent home. I think its owned by a company out of Gibraltar, run by a company out of Delaware and used for military refueling and/or fighting forest fires.

If there isn’t movie about this plane in 30 years when something becomes declassified, ill be disappointed.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

  !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Milky 01/11/2019 at 13:41

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Hell, I'd watch that for sure. Cool story

Milky > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! 01/11/2019 at 13:50

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It super feels like a part of the story isn't being told and I want to know it.  

ttyymmnn > Milky 01/11/2019 at 14:04

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Definitely sounds shady. 

Milky > ttyymmnn 01/11/2019 at 14:18

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I’ve seen enough action movies to know how this plays out.  

Urambo Tauro > Milky 01/11/2019 at 14:24

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[desire to know more intensifies]

Also, the airport has room to just “store” this thing for the past 10 years? They a re charging rent, right? Shoot, it’s probably not even skyworthy anymore. I’m sure it’s gonna need more than just fuel and a regular pre-flight inspection before it can go anywhere.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Milky 01/11/2019 at 14:25

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I can only assume it involves a bunch of flashy modified cars taking 15 minutes to drive down a 10,000 foot runway at top speed while shifting approximately 87,000 times. 

Milky > Urambo Tauro 01/11/2019 at 14:42

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Its an ex-air force base in the middle of the U.P., lots of room. Also while reading this I found out the government has a 99 year lease, so they can probably p ut whatever they want there.

Also, also, apparently they are paying for storage and maintaining it.

A private, unknown company out of Gibraltar is responsible for paying to keep the plane housed at Sawyer. The aircraft has been maintained by Ukrainian aircraft mechanics, and the company is actively trying to sell the plane.

But that is also from the latest news article I can find, June 2017.

Milky > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 01/11/2019 at 14:45

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You joke, but  the airport has 12,366-foot-long runway.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Urambo Tauro 01/11/2019 at 14:50

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Like Milky said, it’s a former Air Force base that used to be home of a B-52 wing. Now it’s an international airport that has a handful of CRJ’s a day going to Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Milky 01/11/2019 at 14:55

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No, I’m fully aware as I’ve flown out of it before.  It turns out B-52's liked loooong runways.  The terminal is about midway down the runway, but on the opposite side of the runway from the road running past it, so the access road is super long.

Urambo Tauro > Milky 01/11/2019 at 15:00

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Dang, I overlooked that. Now I wonder if they’re going to be able to keep up the same level of maintenance with the aircraft  outside...

Milky > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 01/11/2019 at 15:25

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Didn’t realize! I wrongly assumed the Venn diagram of oppos and people that have gone through Sawyer looked like     )(

Milky > Urambo Tauro 01/11/2019 at 15:27

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Who knows, I’m still caught up on “unknown company out of Gibraltar ”.  Fake.  I think they meant to type fake company.  

Urambo Tauro > Milky 01/11/2019 at 15:36

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Very suspicious. I managed to find this , but I don’t know French and it’s hard to read through Google Translate. Which is too bad, because it sounds like an absolutely fascinating story.

Milky > Urambo Tauro 01/11/2019 at 15:39

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Dude, what? Now I’m more intrigued. How come I couldn’t find an article like this in English? Going to have to google more later.

one of the money contributors is indeed the king of porn on pink phone! It will be discovered late that nothing could work in this affair; the goal was not to extinguish, but rather to light ... the money pump!