See What Life Is Like For Residents Of Thailand’s Airplane Graveyard

Published September 28, 2016
Updated February 10, 2017
Airplane Bedroom
A young Thai woman sits under a picture of the nation's king in her home inside a dilapidated airplane on September 12, 2015. Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Fan
An elderly Thai lady sits in front of her collection of toys, which had been thrown away by their original owners inside her home, in a disused airplane.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Graveyard
Disused airplanes sit in a field. Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Red Chairs
A young boy plays outside his makeshift airplane home.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Laundry
A Thai woman hangs laundry outside of her makeshift airplane home.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Night Time
A Thai man smokes a cigarette outside his home inside a disused airplane.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Stack Of Tires
A man climbs out of his home in Bangkok's airplane graveyard.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Radio
A Thai man fans himself with a piece of plastic while listening to a battery-powered radio.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Trash Collection
A Thai woman smokes a cigarette before traveling to a recycling center with bags of plastic bottles outside her home in an abandoned airplane.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Window
A Thai man carries water to his home inside one of the airplanes.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Shower
A Thai woman returns to her home in the airplane graveyard after washing.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Body Wreckage
Debris lines the body of an abandoned airplane that has since been turned into a makeshift home.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Cart Bike
A Thai family prepares to travel to a recycling center with bags of plastic bottles outside the airplane graveyard.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Watches
A Thai woman and her young son examine watches to see if they can be resold.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Family On Floor
A family sits together inside their makeshift home.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Grounded Airplane
A woman walks past one of the planes now sitting in Bangkok's airplane graveyard.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Man Shadow
A man walks through his home inside a disused airplane.Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Airplane Mattress
An elderly Thai lady sits in her room. Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

In recent years, impoverished families in Bangkok, Thailand have turned disused, deteriorating airplanes into makeshift homes.

Families like these often gather trash and recycling, which they can sell for a couple dollars a day, in order to get by. But that's certainly not enough to pay rent, so they remain on the outskirts of society, living in ruins.

That said, according to The World Bank and the United Nations, Thailand is one of recent history's great success stories in terms of economic growth and poverty eradication. In fact, the country went from a low-income one to a high-income one in less than a generation as the national poverty rate fell from 67 percent in 1986 to just 11 percent in 2014.

Nevertheless, there may still be as many as approximately 7 million impoverished people in Bangkok, many of whom are likely still reeling from Asia's financial crisis of the early 2000s. And some of those desperate people are the ones who have now ventured into the city's airplane graveyard, and taken refuge inside some rather unlikely homes.


Next, check out the tiny homes that artist Gregory Kloehn built to fight homelessness. Then, step inside seven tiny homes that prove size doesn't matter.

author
All That's Interesting
author
A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
Savannah Cox
editor
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.