By Welcome to the Japod Islands blog! This time we are sharing an article about "Object 505" or Željava Airport, a fascinating underground military complex that, just 30 km from us, easily fits into your visit to the Japod Islands.
In addition to the intriguing history, the article also offers a rare photo gallery - the interior of the airport illuminated for the first time, recorded by passionate researchers. Below is the article from the portal Express.hr in the original form, with thanks to the authors. Enjoy, and after reading, visit other nearby attractions of our region!
The secret of 'Object 505': The huge underground airport of the JNA lights up after 33 years
What was not mined by the JNA was destroyed by the people. Hundreds of meters of lighting cables were pulled out of the ground from the runway at the disused airport. Now a group of enthusiasts is bringing Klek and Željava back to life
It is colloquially called Željava, the entire airport complex, but Željava is actually a small Croatian town near the village of Lički Petrovi Selo, right on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the town of Željava, there was the so-called "200th Air Force Base", where logistical support for the former "Military Airport Bihać" was located, which is only three kilometers away. And the underground part of that airport, which was mined by the JNA before the retreat on May 16, 1992, is called Klek. It was that underground part that shone, illuminated from the inside for the first time after 33 years thanks to the enthusiasts gathered on the blog and Facebook group LYBI Željava: first of all Ivica Meglić, who gave us the photos, and Marko Grozdanić. Damir and Dalibor Vidović and Dejan Deželić supported them during installation. And voila – the beauty shone!
- It's a shame that that building is sitting unused and falling into disrepair. There, people know how to drive cars, drift... And the whole complex, from the entrance for airplanes and beyond, is incredibly attractive for tourists. For example, in neighboring Slovenia, in Pivka, there is a Military History Park. Everything was devastated there too, barely a single building somehow held up, but the Slovenians rebuilt everything, largely with money from the European Union. I think Klek and the whole complex deserve the same. Well, it's probably ten minutes to Plitvice, whenever I go there, especially on weekends, dozens of motorcyclists and cars come. With the involvement of the authorities, everything can really be turned into an object that will be visited by thousands, I guess someone in Croatia will hear about it - Ivica Meglić tells us.
Billions were spent on the construction of “Object 505”, that was the name of the entire complex in the papers marked “top secret”. The first shovel was thrown in 1957/1958, and the construction of the complex was completed ten years later, in 1968. Then the 117th Fighter Aviation Regiment was transferred from Pleso, the 124th and 125th Fighter Squadrons, to an underground facility that was built for 58 aircraft. And each had a designated place with the possibility of filling with kerosene. They had five tanks there with 100,000 liters each, as well as an underground pipeline from Bihać for kerosene. The air traffic control tower was not a classic one, but was dug into the rock, and it was reached by elevator.
The Klek underground facility was designed to withstand an atomic bomb impact of up to 20 kilotons, which is probably why it survived even though the JNA mined it. They say with 50 tons of explosives. It has four galleries:
- “A” accommodates 20 aircraft, in one part of the central gallery
- "B" was a workshop and served as a passage to the exit,
- "C" received 22 planes, a
- “D” another 16.
What the JNA did not destroy by blowing up during the retreat – and it destroyed the elevators and the entire tower, as well as all three takeoff and two takeoff and landing runways by placing military explosives in the lighting shafts, so the runway is full of craters that go in a “zig-zag” manner – was destroyed by people. – Kilometers of cables connecting the lighting were torn off the runway, people simply took away everything that was left – Meglić tells us. And the underground facility Klek had everything, including a doctor, classrooms for pilots, rooms… Everything was designed so that in the event of a nuclear attack they could survive autonomously for 30 days. They had food, water, air filters, a restaurant, a photo laboratory, rooms with parachute equipment, an operations center, a communications center and even a morgue….
Facility 505 already had video surveillance. They say that Yugoslav experts built a base modeled on Säve in Sweden. Sweden has a total of seven mountain hangars, two built during World War II and five more added during the Cold War. Säve has two such hangars, one built in 1943 near the current control tower with protected areas at taxiway level. The second was built between 1950 and 1955. The underground protected area covers over 22,000 square meters. Everything is of course preserved. However, Sweden did not have the JNA to detonate all that.
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