Dark tourism leads to the sky above Chernobyl

(CNN) – If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing the worst nuclear disaster in the world from the air, now may be your chance.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of this month’s catastrophe, an air tour will be offered to give passengers a chance to look down at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the abandoned city of Pripyat.

The tour, operated by the Ukrainian company International Airlines, will take place on April 25, on the eve of the date when Reactor no.

It is a simple itinerary. For about $ 106 (2,970 hryvnia to Ukraine), participants will get a seat on an Embraer 195 passenger plane that will take off from Kiev’s Boryspil Airport, then fly north to Chernobyl, admiring the views of the exclusion zone around the power plant.

During the flight, organizers say the aircraft will remain above the minimum allowable height of 900 meters above Chernobyl, getting as close as possible to the nuclear power plant without compromising safety.

Very good reviews

The flight is similar to other pandemic-influenced creative travel projects.

And while it may seem strange to move away from a major disaster, contemplating another that happened three decades earlier, organizers say the trip would not have happened without Covid.

“To be honest, this tour was only possible due to the pandemic,” says Bohdan Skotnykov, head of the UIA flight project. “There is a plane available and our team has free time to do creative projects.”

Skotnykov says Covid-19 safety measures will be in place during the flight, according to others operated by the UIA. Passengers and crew will strictly follow the quarantine rules at both the airport and the plane.

This is not the first time the UIA has operated this type of trip. Several previous flights were sold out in two days and got great reviews.

“I liked the opportunity to communicate freely with the pilots the most,” Vladimir Belenky, who attended the third UIA flight over Kiev and Chernobyl, told CNN, adding that he was satisfied with both the service and the of the program.

“I’ve always dreamed of going right under the plane and sitting in the captain’s seat in a Boeing 777 cabin. My dream has come true.”

Although more focused on aviation, the UIA trip continues a popular tradition of black tourism that, before Covid restrictions, saw tens of thousands of visitors exploring the disastrous site around Chernobyl and the abandoned city of Pripyat.

“Chernobyl is the most successful tourist destination in Ukraine,” says Yaroslav Yemelyanenko, director of the Chernobyl Tour. “Before quarantine, the number of tourists doubled every year.”

Mysterious setting

Despite this, the pandemic has put pressure on dark tourism.

In 2020, only 32,000 people visited the exclusion zone, 72,000 less than in 2019.

International tourists, intrigued after watching HBO’s popular TV series “Chernobyl,” accounted for 80 percent of all visitors, but global travel restrictions saw a surge of interest reduced to a stream.

But Yemelyanenko is positive about the future of tourism in Chernobyl. His company is working on new creative offerings that capitalize on the mysterious setting of the Exclusion Zone.

Recent tours have included the Chernobyl kayak, boat trips on the Pripyat River and extreme field trips in the area. The company offers its own flight experience over Chernobyl, Pripyat and Duga radar.

“When the full tourist link between the countries is finally restored, we will have something to surprise even those tourists who have often been to the Chernobyl area,” adds Yemelyanenko.

Certainly, the gloomy history of the region, its ghost town and the vast landscape of 1,000 square meters of abandoned structures, not to mention haunting rumors, continue to attract many people.

Some join the official tours after obtaining the required permit to visit the area. Others enter illegally and wander in places contaminated with radiation at the risk of incurring huge fines.

‘The time machine’

“The idea of ​​making museum rooms came up almost 10 years ago, when I first visited the exclusion zone and saw that all the remaining buildings in Pripyat were looted,” Stanislav told CNN. He said he wants to complete some restoration projects to show people what the spaces look like in the first days after the total evacuation of all residents of Pripyat.

So far, they have brought to life a kitchen and a room in one of the Pripyat apartments, as well as several kindergarten locations. Their good intentions are illegal, and the renovation sessions are regularly interrupted by the police.

It is estimated that almost 30% of the tourist attractions in the area have been burned, including the former Soviet youth camp Izumrudnoye and an abandoned village, Stara Markivka.

However, the Exclusion Zone seems to have a positive future.

In recent years, Ukraine has tried to change Chernobyl from a shameful monument to incompetence and tragedy to what the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has called “a unique place on the planet where nature is reborn after the man-made disaster worldwide.”

In 2019, Zelensky signed a 2019 decree on tourism development in the Chernobyl area. The new infrastructure projects and tourist routes bring with them a new hope on the abandoned territory.