GHOSTS OF CROATIA - PART II: Abandoned Underground Airport

ŽELJAVA

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The military airport named "Željava" was the biggest airport in the former Yugoslav army.
They started projecting it in 1954. and it took them 12 years to finish. It lies on the Coatian-Bosnian border inside a mountain and it had its full function from 1968. to 1992. when it was blown up during the retreat of JNA forces.

photo: airport from air

photo: Željava during 1970s

One day my phone rang, and out of nowhere my friend starts telling me about this creepy abandoned underground airport that he wants us to visit so I decided to meet him for coffee. When we met he already showed me a map that he hand-drew in his notebook. He also said that there are maybe traces of posion gases still trapped inside from the explosion but we still decided to go.

I have to mention that this area is forbidden to traspass, the airport is one big minefield and as long as you stick to the concrete road, youre good. It is also forbbiden to take photos or videos of the place.

photo: warning sign

As we were aproaching the boarder pass, we asked a local guy for directions to the airport and he told us that it is strictly forbidden to go there but he will tell us where it is because he does not care about the law.
The good villager showed us an old concrete road that goes beside a mountain, we followed it for about 2 km and we saw a Douglas C-47, a military transport aircraft giant resting in its grave beside to road. Next to it there were 2 "dead" MIGs but it was to sketchy to walk to them beacuse of the mines.

photo: Douglas C-47

photo: in the belly of the beast

photo: 2 MIGs in their graves

And old woman from the village passed by the planes and looked at us in a certain way.
We were afraid she was going to call the police so we
left. We drove through the airfield to one of the entrances and hid the car in the bushes because we saw police patrols near. We also put face masks because of the gas and we went inside on foot.

photo: My friend David Webb leading the way

photo: hand-drawn map

Unfortunately one of two of the entrances has a collapsed ceiling after a 100 meters and we happend to be in that one. My friend checked the hand-drawn map and saw a small corridor leading to some boiler room so we started walking through this hallway, water almost above our ankles and we reached the boiler room. The only way I can describe this room is like a scene from Silent Hill or Freddy Krueger.

photo: boiler room

As we went forward, through a tight corridor, we finally reached one of the big main hallways with a goal to reach the morgue. We stopped and froze when we saw something hanging from a 6 meter ceiling.
To us this looked like a hanged person, but when we flashed a light into that horrible thing, it was just a piece of metal debry from explosion so we took a photo of it. :)

photo: metal debry

We continued walking the halls finally found what once used to be a morgue. What better place to take a selife then in an blown-up underground morgue?

photo: morgue selfie

While trying to work our way to an exit, we found quite a few interesting things. An old soldier's boot inside a hole and a smugglers van that was also blown up during the retreat.

photo: soldier's boot

photo: smuggler's van

photo: smuggler's van inside

As we finally started seeing some daylight in far distance of the hallway, I noticed armature (reinforcing bars) hanging from the ceiling concluding that this part of the ceiling was the nearest to the explosion blast.
As we carefully went around it, we finally saw the "MIG doors" (airplane gateways) leading us back to civilization.

photo: armature

photo: airplane gateway

At the end, I want to mention that this place is abosulutely one of the most dangerous places I have been in my life considering the fact there is no visibility inside, if your flashlight dies you might not be able to get out, ever. It's freezing and the dampness is almost ubearable, there are many holes in the ground where you can fall and get hurt and the ceiling can not be trusted.
This place has a certain dark energy about it. Do you feel it?

Best Regards,
Vermillion666