Malaysia Airports Holdings is looking for the owners of three cargo aircraft which have apparently been abandoned at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

A notice published in two newspapers on December 7 pictured three Boeing 747-200s, which the airport operator identified as 747-200Fs, although two of the aircraft pictured appeared to be passenger aircraft, at least at some point. “If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft,” the advertisement said.

On December 8, the airport published a “clarification” on its website. “The advertisements dated 7 December 2015 in The Star and Sin Chew Daily serve as notice to the owner of the aircraft that the aircraft may be sold to recover the charges owed by the owner to Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd under the Civil Aviation Regulations 1996.

“The giving of such notice by way of advertisement is a common and reasonable step in the process of debt recovery especially in cases where the company concerned has ceased operations and is a foreign entity whereby exhaustive steps undertaken to find a contact person have not been successful.

“This step is also a common process undertaken by airport operators all over the world when faced with such a situation,” the airport operator said in the clarification.