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Ceausescu's former BAC jet at Otopeni Airport near Bucharest
Photo: ARTMARK / AFP
A bedroom for himself and his wife, an office in which he could play backgammon with his wife: the former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had high demands on his BAC 1-11 private plane.
More than 30 years after Ceausescu's execution, the jet has now been auctioned for 120,000 euros.
As a spokeswoman for the Artmark auction house announced, around 150 collectors and aviation enthusiasts took part in the auction on Thursday evening in Bucharest.
The starting bid was 25,000 euros.
A luxury car of the Paykan Hillman Hunter type, which the Iranian Shah Ceausescu had given to him in 1974, changed hands for 95,000 euros.
Ceausescu wanted to prove "industrial independence"
The auction house had advertised Ceausescu's aircraft, which once had the inscription "Socialist Republic of Romania" emblazoned on its fuselage, as a "jewel".
The medium-haul aircraft was built in Bucharest under license from the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Artmark said that Ceausescu wanted to demonstrate his "industrial independence" from the superpower Soviet Union.
The machine was commissioned in 1986 and was part of Ceausescu's fleet until the dictator was overthrown in December 1989 and executed together with his wife Elena.
According to a previous pilot, Ceausescu preferred a Boeing 707 to travel.
After Ceausescu's fall, the machine was initially included in the fleet of the now bankrupt state airline Romavia, was temporarily loaned to Pakistan to Aero Asia and finally ended up in a hangar.
In order to prevent it from being scrapped, a group of aviation fans reached out to the Bucharest government in March of this year to give the machine the status of a national heritage.
Machine cannot fly
However, it may now neither be dismantled nor leave Romanian territory, as the former Rombac technician Adrian Ciutan explained.
However, the aircraft may be exhibited - or even made afloat again, but then with considerable effort.
According to the former Air Force pilot Gheorghe Marica, who previously flew the model himself, the engines are no longer approved because of their high noise level.
Other parts are also out of date.
In Romania a total of nine Rombac machines of the Super One-Eleven type were built in the 1980s.
apr / fek / AFP
