PLANE GRAVEYARD

Haunting pics show abandoned underground communist airbase where 30-year-old fighter jets have been left to rust surrounded by mines and radioactive dust

Zeljava Underground Airbase was abandoned following the Serbo-Croatian War in 1992

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Many of the aircraft destroyed in conflicts have been abandoned at the site

SPOOKY images have been unearthed of Europe’s largest underground airport and military base –  built to survive a direct hit from a 20-kilotonne nuclear bomb.

Zeljava Underground Airbase was abandoned in the Serbo-Croatian War in 1992 and is located in woodlands on the border of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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The eerie military base is on the Croatian border with Bosnia-Herzegovina

The base, built by the former communist government of Yugoslavia, once housed squadrons of MIG Fighter Jets but was destroyed in conflicts in the region following the fall of communism.

Now it is ghostly shadow of its former self with only scattered rusting aircraft a reminder of its historic past.

 

    

The only visitors now are the migrants who sometimes shelter there before sneaking across the border.     

However they risk their lives doing so, as the base is still surrounded by minefields which are a legacy of the conflict which ended with a Croatian victory in 1995.

Not to mention the radioactive dust which hangs in the atmosphere following dozens of fires sparked by the bombings.

The airbase was built by the Yugoslav government and was destroyed by the Serbs in 1992 to stop it falling into the hands of the Croatians.

Many of the derelict aircraft on site have been there since the late 1960s.

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The base was destroyed by Serbs to stop it falling into the hands of the enemy

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Objekat 505 was one of the largest military constructions in Europe

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There are still a few rusting remains of MIG fighters on the site

However, all three MiG-21 squadrons based in Zeljava were transferred to Slatina airbase and Batajnica airbase in Serbia before they were destroyed.

The squadrons’ other aircraft were later either destroyed by NATO bombing in 1999 or left simply to rot.

Construction of the Zeljava or Bihać Air Base, code-named ‘Objekat 505’, began in 1948 and was completed in 1968.

During those two decades, more than £4 billion was spent on its construction, three times the combined current annual military budgets of Serbia and Croatia.

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Many of the aircraft were either destroyed by NATO bombings or left to rot

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The underground base is still surrounded by deadly minefields

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The underground tunnels once housed entire squadrons of aircraft

It was one of the largest and most expensive military construction projects in Europe.

The role of the facility was to establish, integrate, and coordinate a nationwide early warning radar network akin to NORAD.

The complex was designed and built to sustain a direct hit from a 20-kilotonne nuclear bomb, equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki.

The bunker also featured a mess hall which could feed up to 1,000 people

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The only visitors now are the migrants who sometimes shelter there

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During two decades more than £4 billion was spent on its construction

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The bunker also featured a mess hall which could feed 1,000 people

The main advantage of the base was the strategic location of its ‘Celopek’ intercept and surveillance radar on Mount Pljesevica.

It was at the nerve centre of an advanced integrated air defence network covering the airspace and territory of Yugoslavia and beyond.

In addition to its main roles as a protected radar installation, control centre, and secure communications facility, the airbase contained underground tunnels housing two full fighter squadrons and one reconnaissance squadron.