Wednesday, May 2, 2012

"Report a problem": Missing Planes

Consider these two images, both captured from Google Maps satellite view, the first one three years ago, and the second one just last week. You can compare the images by orienting your gaze by the triangular pattern at the bottom, to see how the spaces match up.



In the bottom right-hand corner of the satellite view, it says "Report a problem." I'm not sure I'm quite ready to report this as a problem to Google, but I do wonder: what happened to all those airplanes? There are dozens that were there a few years ago that have now (apparently) vanished. Have they been redeployed? Sold? Scrapped? Where do airplanes go after they've done time in the boneyard?