this area where this plane was found looks so peaceful and serene. Hopefully the pilot found it to be a pleasant place.

Nah, the pilot was probably dead.

Where is this? I so want to check it out too!

A link to the google maps page would be so awesome. I love treasure hunts.

Anyone know the backstory to this?

Where’s Mr. Eko when you need him?

post a link to the map, or the long/lat coords

Wow…
That’s really neat.
Google Earth is so useful.

that is very cool!

What the hell? Did they land there as a 911 and then trees grew around it?

Can someone say, LOST?

Doesn’t really look like a crash — wings etc. don’t appear to be damaged. Almost looks like it was soft-landed before the trees grew around it.

Only in Russia?

Considering the plane is intact, it almost looks like the area used to be an airstrip but then was abandoned and the forest grew around the plane.

scrap them avionics and you won’t have to work this year

anyone know the story behind that?

the aircraft looks aligned to some sort of short airstrip. good luck getting it out tho. good job by the photog: 5/5!!

Does anyone know where this plane was found? There’s a red army star on the tail, and it certainly looks Russian made. This leads me to hope it was found in Russia or one of the former Soviet bloc states.

Not a crash, in spite of the tags. This aircraft was positioned at the end of a short runway for some military purpose, possibly the evacuation of personnel from some remote outpost.

The plane is an Antonov An-8.

If I’m not mistaken, The Soviet Union dispersed many of their war assets into remote locations during the cold war. They were afraid the US would attack and destroy much of their war making equipment (like planes). So they would strategically place fighters, cargo planes and alike in heavily wooded areas. The assets would be camouflaged and hard to not only had to locate from the air but who would look for them there! Anyway after the first strike (assuming the US attacked first), they could activate these assets. I don’t know if the larger planes would be flown in or brought in in pieces and assembled. To fly them out you could build a makeshift runway to take off.
My guess is that this particular aircraft wasn’t worth the trouble to get it out. So they left it there after the cold war ended and the Soviet Union fell. I wonder if there’s still fuel in the tanks?