Plane Crash in a School
Nestled amongst the buildings of a technical college in Antwerp is a F-84F Thunderstreak fighter-bomber. But how did it get there?
The Belgian airforce had around 197 of the American built F-84Fs, and the story goes that this one, serial number FU-36, crash-landed here around 40 years ago. Then, when somebody decided to build a school here - rather than moving the aircraft out of the way - the buildings were built around the plane!
Check out these fantastic HDR photographs of the aircraft.
However, personally I think the story is a little far-fetched. Even if you accepted that the builders wouldn’t just move it out of the way, what’s the chances that Belgium would just abandon one of their fighters?
I searched high and low for mention of FU-36 on the web, and found several conflicting reports of its location and status. Some sites do indeed describe it as “abandonded“, but others describe it as “preserved at a Tech School”.
One site even claims that “this is one of several aircraft that languished on Belgian military airfields” which would imply to me that, at some point, this plane was decommissioned and stored away on an airfield. Perhaps before being donated to the school?
Anyway, enough of this “investigative journalism” - the crash-landing story is way more fun!
Thanks: asfaltkonijn via Timdc
Fandabbydosey
More about the history here, dutch:
http://www.emich.be/nl/2007/05/21/een-vliegtuig-in-een-antwerps-schooltje/
I heard that the famous Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman crashed the plane in between those buildings many years ago.
I can see it now:
Underling at the Belgian Air Force ” Commander! We have a plane down”
Grande Fromage at the Belgian Air Force “Is the pilot safe?”
Underling at the Belgian Air Force “Yes - he landed safely”
Grande Fromage at the Belgian Air Force “Is the plane damaged?”
Underling at the Belgian Air Force “A bit but its recoverable -shall we go and get it?
Grande Fromage at the Belgian Air Force “Nah - dont bother. We’ve got loads - we wont miss one. Its not like we are going to be involved in a war or owt is it? We’ll just surrender the minute someone threatens us anyway”
Jump 20 years
Underling at architects office “What shall we do about this plane in the way of the school?”
Architect “Just leave it. We’ll build round it. I cant be bothered to have it shifted. We’ll make it a ‘feature’ - like a rock graden or something”
Hum, on the site where they say that the plane is abandoned, the word ”abandoned ” (in French) is feminine (in the French language there are masculine and feminine and, unlike English, it modifies the orthograph of verbs), like it would suggest that it is the school (not the plane) that is abandoned. Or maybe it’s just a typing error.
In some politically-correct places here in the States, kids can get expelled for drawing a picture of a gun. Imagine the penalty for bringing a jet fighter to school.
It’s the “cour” (fem.) which is abandonned: the witness says he had to climb over a hedge to get to see the thing, demonstrating his lack of fitness.
I’m a Belgian-resident polyglot Brit, in passing, speaking French, Belgo-French, Flemish and a fistful of other languages.
Abandonnée is the past participle of the verb, which is actually an adjective and conjugates like any other regural adjective, in this case feminine singular. The reference to the tech school is a Belgian-style subordinate adjectival phrase, and if the word abandonnée had referred to it, it would not have been in brackets. The French would have been more logical, putting abandonned after the word “cour”, the Belgians are more concerned with communicating it’s in a school-yard.
Ah. Thank you Jel, didn’t knew.
Class dismissed.
That is some nasty Photoshop work on those pictures.
Those photos certainly make the scene look very grim. I’d love to see a picture of it in happier times with people sunbathing around it and eating picnics under the wings!
It doesn’t look crashed. I guess the pilot could have brought it down safely if there was once a large field or open area.
The school indeed is abandoned since a few years, but when the school was active it had a class about aviation for the technical students there.
I thought (not sure) the students rebuild the plane again and made it work again technically, but it never flied.
A few years before that they made another plane.
So no the plane didn’t crash there.
If you want to know anything more about the area just asked, I lived there for the first 30 years of my live… and still visit the neighborhood regularly
P.eter
Hi Peter, I am very interested in this site, i was wondering if you know knew the name of the school? Do you know of any other sites which are likely to have pictures or information. I have looked but I have found very little. If anybody can provide further details then that would be great (preferably in English or French… very poor French!).
The school doesn’t exist anymore as school, but at the time I went there it was called: SM10 which stands for “Stedelijke middenschool 10″, which in English means: Community school number 10.
The address is Emiel Verhaerenlaan 24 (I’m not sure about the number anymore), 2050 Antwerpen, Belgium
At the time I went to school there, there was no plane yet. Afterwards the school changed to a STI or something (Technical Community school or in dutch: Stedelijke technische school).
If I think about it, I will drive by the school tomorrow for some more information.
Thanks for the information Peter, it is a fascinating place. It must have been an enormous school! Thanks again, Gareth
I’ve been there yesterday and must say to school is awful state, I can’t enter it, so I’m not sure the plane is still there.
If it’s there it will not stay long anymore, because the city is currently in the progress of cleaning up the neighborhood
Thanks for taking a look Peter, if I wam ever in town then I will certainly pop over on the off chance that it is still there.
Yesterday (9 march) the school has been completely burned downed, with 1 dead person
Latest news ! One of the sites mentionned here seems to have been updated, it says : “The plane was still owned by the Belgian AF and they took it back in Apr 2008 and sent it to its deposit at Vissenaken. Will be loaned to Poland for an exhibition honoring 10 years of Polish NATO membership.”