The strange story behind the Boeing 747 once parked at Willow Run Airport
Until last year, there was a Boeing 747 parked at Willow Run Airport, in Ypsilanti. It looked comically out of place—most the other planes are two-seaters used by the flight school, or small jets available for charter.
Baltia was founded in August 1989 by Igor Dmitrowsky, a Latvian immigrant who’d recently sold his dairy distribution company. The airline planned to offer non-stop service from New York’s JFK Airport to Pulkovo Airport, St. Petersburg. Once the airline had that in place, Dmitrowsky said, Baltia would add routes to Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia.
It has not gone according to plan.
Twenty seven years later, even though the company is still extant and still raising capital, it has never flown a flight, has never earned any revenue, and has recently given up on its only airplane.. . . .
http://michiganradio.org/post/strange-s ... un-airport
Baltia Airlines
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- flyboy2548m
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Re: Baltia Airlines
It's a strange tale, to be sure. I was unaware that they went back all the way to 1989, the first I heard of them was around 2004/2005. At the time, their "headquarters" address was an apartment in Rego Park, Queens, not far from LGA. There were press releases, sporadic news stories, a little industry buzz, but nothing concrete. Then when I was a new hire at Shuttle America, our Chief Pilot was also a new hire, and he told me that he had done some work for Baltia (as a consultant), and where things stood at the time (late 2012) was that the FAA had just rejected their latest set of manuals. He also never entirely clarified if Baltia had paid him for his "consulting". I did ask him if he felt running JFK-LED with a pair or three of old, decrepit 742s would be feasible. He said that it might be with a "robust cargo program". I believe it was around that time that Baltia purchased that airplane from Kalitta, because it was sitting in a hangar waiting for Baltia to be for the D Check. I assume that never happened.
On another note, the fact that anybody actually invested ANY money into this mess, let alone "their entire life savings" boggles my mind. Then again, watch any episode of CNBC's "American Greed", and it becomes clear that there is no end to cockamamie schemes people are willing to dump their last dollar into. Part of why that irks me is that during my brief stint in the investment business I was selling totally legitimate financial vehicles, and yet people didn't give me the time of day.
Serves them right, I suppose. A fool and his money are soon parted.
On another note, the fact that anybody actually invested ANY money into this mess, let alone "their entire life savings" boggles my mind. Then again, watch any episode of CNBC's "American Greed", and it becomes clear that there is no end to cockamamie schemes people are willing to dump their last dollar into. Part of why that irks me is that during my brief stint in the investment business I was selling totally legitimate financial vehicles, and yet people didn't give me the time of day.
Serves them right, I suppose. A fool and his money are soon parted.
"Lav sinks on 737 Max are too small"
-TeeVee, one of America's finest legal minds.
-TeeVee, one of America's finest legal minds.
Re: Baltia Airlines
Well said sir. Of course it serves them right. Even with the benefit of hindsight this looks like a crock of shite. Ridiculous story. Crooks!
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