A full-size Boeing 777-200ER permanently lives parked on a university campus and this is why

There’s a full-size Boeing 777-200ER that’s been living parked on a university campus in South Korea.

The plan is not a mockup, and it’s not abandoned.

It was donated by Korea Air for a specific reason.

And there’s another element that’ll make you understand what happened.

Why this Boeing is parked here

A YouTuber who goes by World Aviation 4K spotted a Boeing 777 parked literally right next to the soccer pitch on a university campus.

For decades, the campus landmark was an old, narrow-body Boeing 727 that Korean Air had donated back in the 1990s, which was cool, but ancient.

Aviation maintenance, cabin crew, and ground staff students were training on an airplane that hasn’t been flown commercially in decades.

To give students a more modern and relevant experience, Korean Air retired this Boeing 777-200ER, disassembled it at Gimpo International Airport in South Korea, and then reassembled it right next to the campus soccer field.

That’s the first reason.

But the second reason is even more logical.

The university in question is Inha Technical College, which is owned by the same parent company that owns Korean Air – the Hanjin Group.

Well, it all makes sense now.

When aircraft can no longer fly

Aircraft are retired early a lot more often than we think.

This usually happens because of economic obsolescence or neglect, but that, in turn, can be caused by different things.

John Travolta’s Boeing 707, for example, was initially parked for some routine maintenance but one thing led to another and it ended up never flying again.

Then there’s the case of Thai Airways, which probably bit off more than it could chew and found itself with too many Airbus A380s it just couldn’t use.

One of those ended up in a relatively unknown location, not far from Bangkok, and it is now being used as a restaurant.