Enthusiasts get high in bone-rattling old NK jets

Tourists get on board an Air Koryo aircraft at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport in June 2015. / Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

When the editor-in-chief of American magazine “Airways,” Enrique Perrella, rode North Korean national carrier Air Koryo’s IL-76, he felt its thundering engine sound “vibrating to his bones.”

Perrella, who was taking part in an “international plane experiencing event,” said the aircraft, one of seven jets the carrier operates, was originally an old cargo plane. The other planes ― imported from the Soviet Union and Ukraine ― also were dilapidated, he said.

An II-18, a presidential plane used by North Korea’s first leader, Kim Il-sung, was particularly spacious, while AN-148, bought by the secluded state in 2015, still smelled like new, Perrella said.

After paying more than $2,200 for the event, held by London-based tour agency

Juche Travel Services

in May, Perrella penned the experience and published it in his magazine’s

July issue

, according to the Voice of America.

Seventy-five people, 30 percent of whom were Americans, participated in the event’s flights that took them from Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport to Wonsan’s Kalma Airport.

An Air Koryo aircraft lands on Gimpo International Airport in South Korea. / Korea Times

The participants were eager to experience the rare Soviet jets and, according to Perrella, scrambled to seats near engines whenever they got on board.

David Thompson, the travel agency’s owner, said in an interview with CNN in April that North Korea is a must-visit destination for jet lovers because it is considered the last place with a big collection of old planes from the Soviet era.