The photos were taken by Comdig Urban Exploration Group. They are photographers and explorers based in Russia. The Comdig Group has been documenting urban decay, industrial abandonments, and rural decomposition since 2010.
The Antonov An-12 was a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. For more than three decades the An-12 was the standard medium-range cargo and paratroop transport aircraft of the Soviet air forces. A total of 1,248 were eventually built.
Snow-covered nose of Antonov AN-12 aircraft. Nearby was another one, but already torn off. The rear of the aircraft could not be found, but wings and aft were found nearby.
The wings and support system of the abandoned aircraft, surprisingly, were assembled and even the rubber remained.
A careful examination of the fuselage led nowhere. Urban explorers really wanted to find the side number of the plane in order to find out its history, but all attempts were in vain. Unfortunately, they not manage to find out the history of this aircraft, but found out about an incident in this area with another AN-12, which happened in the late 1960s.
It happened in 1967, the opening of four canopies of the parachute system caused a powerful jerk, which pulled out the Soviet airborne amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle BMD-1. The fuselage of the aircraft was severely damaged. This caused the separation of the tail from the aircraft, which began to descend uncontrollably and landed at the edge of a forest in a field. But all this was a little inconsistent with the state of this particular cabin.
The door to the cockpit was locked, but urban explorers noticed a slightly open window next to the assistant pilot’s seat. They stepped on the wheel and climbed inside.
The cabin turned out to be heavily dismantled. Almost all the instruments have been removed, the casing has been torn out. On the floor, they noticed a lot of used grinder discs — they were slowly sawing the cabin into non-ferrous metal.
Although some of the instruments and wiring have already been cut off, the condition of the cabin was still not bad, to touch all the levers and toggle switches live was a great success!
Inside Soviet An-12 navigator’s workplace: partly instruments and toggle switches were in place, the wiring was intact.
Another torn nose from the AN-12, where the navigator used to sit.
Behind the cockpit were torn fenders in a pile. The casing on some was partially opened.
There was also an An-12 stern, though without a machine gun. Perhaps machine gun was there too, just buried in a pile of metal.
Thanks for checking out this article. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to share it on Facebook or Telegram While you’re at it, please subscribe and follow me on my social media sites.
