A mothballed nuclear power station surrounded by wasteland, rubble and abandoned buildings is not what most people associate with a Unesco World Heritage site. But that is exactly what Ukraine has in mind for Chernobyl.
Chernobyl marks disaster with scenic flight to nowhere by Ukraine International Airlines
27 Apr, 2021 10:52 PM
4 minutes to read
Flight to nowhere: Ukraine International Airlines is flying passengers on scenic flights over Chernobyl. Photo / Dara Urachova, Vlyadslav Cherkashenko, Unsplash
Flight to nowhere: Ukraine International Airlines is flying passengers on scenic flights over Chernobyl. Photo / Dara Urachova, Vlyadslav Cherkashenko, Unsplash
Last year saw a resurgence in scenic flights, or as they were quickly dubbed flights to nowhere .
Qantas launched circular flight over Uluru, and other airlines offered sight-seeing expeditions over Borneo and even Antarctica. However, nowhere doesn t get more literal than a flight over a nuclear exclusion zone.
Denis Vishnevskiy, chief of the unit of the Chernobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve, speaks during his interview with the Associated Press at the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. This is a gigantic territory in which we keep a chronicle of nature, said Denis Vishnevskiy, 43, who has been observing nature in the reserve for the past 20 years. The exclusion zone is not a curse, but our resource. The vast and empty Chernobyl Exclusion Zone around the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is a baleful monument to human mistakes. Yet 35 years after a power plant reactor exploded, Ukrainians also look to it for inspiration, solace and income.