British Airways operated a training facility at Cranebank beside London Heathrow airport for many years. Training was moved out of the facility several years ago, and the discovery of asbestos meant that it was considered too costly to redevelop.
Many things inside that were deemed of no value were left in situ, which included a flight simulator, cabin trainers and more. In the years since, the building and contents has deteriorated markedly and this video will show it all.
Cranebank Today
The Bearded Explorer on YouTube is an urban explorer who checks out abandoned buildings. His exploits are filmed and posted on the video sharing site for all to enjoy.
An illicit visit to the old British Airways Cranebank facility is the latest one. The video below runs for about half an hour, and it is extremely interesting to watch – or at least skip through to the good bits.
There is an entire Boeing 737-400 simulator remaining, as well as cabin trainers for aircraft such as the Boeing 747. You can see plenty of mold filled leaking classrooms, all complete with furnishings, plus passenger seats and more.
A group from the travelling community apparently gained access at some stage and stripped out all the valuable copper wiring. You can see evidence of that everywhere, especially in the sim.
Overall Thoughts
It is remarkable how the facility has deteriorated in what is really a short period of time. What with the ransacking of the wire, broken windows and general disrepair, perhaps that is not too surprising.
Quite frankly I would have thought something as valuable as a simulator would have been sold on or donated to an airline that still operated the Boeing 737-400, rather than being left there. They are priced in the millions new, and you’d think it would have value now.
I will be curious to see how long it is until it is knocked down and becomes something else. As it’s already been sitting for years, who knows when that will happen.
Have you ever visited Cranebank or been trained there? What do you think of the video? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by KARFA on FlyerTalk.
i use to work there as a cleaner back in the late 90s. It was a great place to work so sad to see it run down now
It is a real shame it was just left to rot. Great to hear you enjoyed working there though! Always nice when you have good memories of a place. Thanks for the comment!
Dis-assembly, transport, and then re-assembly and testing/re-certification of a sim are incredibly expensive. If the sim is not up to the latest standards, it typically is not worth the money to relocate it.
Thanks for that, that makes sense.
I should add, if that sim was installed when BA added the 737-400 to the fleet, it would date back to 1990.
You’d expect it would have been, making it well over 30 years old now.
I was one of the flight crew training officers that helped with the safety designs of the 747 simulator which was made in Tulsa Oklahoma!, which I visited to see it being built. I just feel so sad that all the work we put in has just gone to waste now! I left BA in 1999 but had such a lovely time training all the crew in this wonderful crane bank facility. Michelle Paul ex BA SEP trainer
I wasn’t aware they were manufactured there, that’s interesting. I can imagine it would be sad to see the facility like that, but I guess the replacement one would be more like what you remember. Friends of mine also trained there and remember it well. Thanks very much for the comment!
Before this was a flight/cabin crew training centre it was an engineering apprentice training centre and I spent the first 2 years of my apprenticeship there from 1971 to 1973. It was run by ACEAS or the Air Corporations Engineering Apprentice School. Very sad to see it so run down now.
Good to know, I had no idea it was the engineering apprentice training centre. Thanks for that!
Thanks for posting a photo from when it was still in use. Interesting to see a “before”.
There are still 2 flight sims in the building as well as at least 6 cabin mockups.
When you say “A group from the travelling community apparently gained access at some stage”, that is a massive understatement. From the damage. it looks as if they “ram-raided” the entrance way, as it is totally destroyed.
I was lucky enough to locate a good “before” shot that also matched up with the perspective from the video, so I was happy about that. I still think it’s a shame so much of it wasn’t auctioned off for others to use. Thanks for pointing that out with regards to the entrance, good point! Appreciate the comment!
Hi.. great article. Does anyone know the developer who bought the site? I’m keen to get in contact with them. Many thanks.
Hopefully someone here will know. Good luck!
This is amazing!! I trained as cabin crew 10 years ago and recognise some of the mock up aircrafts. One in particular I’m sure we did the emergency landing scenario in. As for the mock ups that we did the smoke scenarios in they were out side and were more like rooms rather than actual aircraft mock ups. Very very eerie and incredible to see now. Equally brings back some very happy memories and makes me feel very sad at the same time. Very jealous you guys got to see it but thank you so much for sharing!
Sounds like that training would have been a lot of fun, while at the same time very serious. It must be a shame to see it as it is now, but I guess like everything else, time moves on. Glad you liked the video!
Huh. Bloody hell it’s deteriorated!
I used to work at HX / CB.
Induction day one was on those very simulators.
Unbelievable to see it like this, I have a lot of memories … but nothing would have prepared me to see this, just wow.
Thank you for doing this, much appreciated.
I was pretty surprised at the deterioration as well. I guess the building is falling to pieces, which doesn’t help. I guess it shows just how quickly things would go back to nature if people weren’t around to maintain them. Glad you enjoyed this!
Thanks for sharing this Video. This is really awesome.
You’re very welcome!