Sad fate of John Travolta's iconic Qantas Boeing 707 with its tail rotting away in abandoned warehouse's parking lot
Published on Sep 08, 2025 at 8:44 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Sep 04, 2025 at 4:42 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
John Travolta’s iconic Qantas Boeing 707 has been spotted lying in a parking lot with its tail rotting away.
The Boeing 707-138B model, which sports the tail number N707JT, was built back in the 1960s.
It served the Australian airline Qantas for years, and still held onto the airline’s livery even after it was retired.
Hollywood star Travolta snapped it up in 1998 and used it to fly himself and his family around.
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John Travolta’s iconic Qantas Boeing 707 has seen better days
When he’s not appearing on the big screen, Grease star John Travolta is a keen aviation enthusiast.
In addition to having his pilot’s license, Travolta also has an impressive fleet of planes.
Until relatively recently, one of the highlights of the fleet was Travolta’s iconic Qantas Boeing 707, the star even once revealed the interesting story of how he got his hands on it.
Travolta flew the plane for years, but in 2017 N707JT was grounded for essential works.
According to reports, the plane was stored in Brunswick, Georgia.
However, the essential maintenance work was never carried out it has remained grounded ever since.
Sadly, the once-legendary Qantas plane was recently spotted by a pilot who was using the airport where it is stored.
He snapped a quick photo of the plane and shared it to Reddit where he explained that it had been left with its ‘tail rotting away at an abandoned warehouse parking lot’.
“They recently cut the tail off the plane a couple of months ago, which is now sitting on wooden pallets in an abandoned warehouse parking lot, rotting away,” the pilot wrote.
“I spotted it from the air the other day and had to get a photo of it.
“Sad fate for such an iconic aircraft.”
But all is not lost, because there’s light at the end of the tunnel for the plane.
However, all is not lost for the legendary N707JT
While Travolta’s iconic Qantas Boeing 707 has very obviously seen better days, it’s not the end for the aircraft.
Around the time it was grounded, Travolta decided to donate it to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) Museum in Australia.
Back in April, HARS Museum posted on Facebook to say N707JT ‘is being carefully disassembled to be shipped to HARS at Albion Park’.
“Despite all our efforts, doing the required maintenance on site has proved to be not practical and so once it arrives at the museum it will be put back together and maintained by our engineers here,” the post continued.
“Will it be airworthy once again? We will just have to see how far we can go.”
In an update from June, HARS revealed it was in the process of being shipped ‘piece by piece’, with more expected to land in coming months.
Here’s hoping the team from HARS can work its magic and give this iconic aircraft the restoration it deserves.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
