There's a giant plane sitting in the middle of the Nevada desert two weeks after Burning Man - and officials are demanding it be removed
- A hollowed-out Boeing 747, which was used as an art installation during Burning Man, is still in the middle of the Nevada desert.
- Since 2016, the plane has been hauled more than 500 miles to its destination in the Black Rock Desert for the annual Burning Man festival. There, it serves as an art installation, an open-air nightclub, and a "mutant vehicle."
- This year, however, the plane hasn't been moved out of the Black Rock Desert. The owner, Big Imagination Camp, says the plane is being moved to private property nearby, but the terrain is proving difficult.
- The US Bureau of Land Management currently considers the plane to be trespassing, as its original recreation permit issued for Burning Man has expired.
The annual Burning Man festival, a notoriously surreal festival that draws tens of thousands of attendees, operates under the principle of "leaving no trace" - which means that attendees should leave the Black Rock Desert, where the festival is held, as they found it.
One obstacle to this principle is a hollowed-out Boeing 747 airplane currently parked in the middle of the Nevada desert two weeks after Burning Man, the Reno Gazette Journal reports.
The plane is an art installation, nightclub, and "mutant vehicle" during the festival, but now it's a headache for the Bureau of Land Management and the owners of the airplane, Big Imagination Camp.
Since 2016, the plane has been hauled 500 miles to its destination at Burning Man, then hauled back. However, this year the plans changed slightly. Big Imagination Camp decided to bring the plane to nearby private property so future transportation to and from the festival is easier.
Rough terrain caused problems for the team towing the plane, and it's currently parked in the middle of the desert.
The US Bureau of Land Management considers the plane "trespassing," as the original recreation permit issued for Burning Man has expired, according to Rudy Evenson, acting communications chief of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Nevada.
"It was moved off the event site without BLM authorization. So its legal status is in trespass with unauthorized use," Evenson said to the Reno Gazette."Bottom line is, we're evaluating options for getting rid of it."
Ken Feldman, CEO of Big Imagination Camp, says the company is working on removing the plane from the desert, but the rough and uneven terrain has slowed down the process.
Read the full report from the Reno Gazette Journal here.