Dark tourism takes over Chernobyl

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

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the catastrophe this month, a tour is being offered that gives passengers the chance to see the Chernobyl nuclear power station and the deserted city of Pripyat.

The tour, hosted by Ukrainian International Airlines, will take place on April 25, on the eve of the date on which Chernobyl’s reactor no. 4 exploded in 1986, sending a toxic plume of radioactivity into the air across Europe.

It’s a simple itinerary. For about $ 106 (2,970 Ukrainian hryvnia), participants will get a seat on an Embraer 195 passenger plane that will take off from Boryspil airport in Kiev and then fly north to Chernobyl and take panoramas of the exclusion zone around the power station.

During the flight, organizers say the plane will stay above the minimum allowable altitude of 900 meters above Chernobyl and get as close as possible to the nuclear power station without compromising safety.

Good reviews

The flight is similar to other creative travel companies affected by pandemic.

And while it may seem strange to keep one major disaster away by considering the other what happened three decades earlier, organizers say the trip would not have taken place without Covid.

“To be honest, this tour was only made possible due to the pandemic,” said Bohdan Skotnykov, UIA’s project chief for the flight. “There is an aircraft available and our team has some free time to do creative projects.”

Skotnykov says the Covid-19 safety measures during the flight will be in place in line with others operated by UIA. Passengers and crew members must adhere strictly to the quarantine rules, both at the airport and on the plane.

This is not the first time that UIA has carried out this type of trip. Several previous flights were sold out within two days and received good reviews.

“Most of all, I like the opportunity to communicate freely with the pilots,” Vladimir Belenky, who took part in the third UIA flight over Kiev and Chernobyl, told CNN, adding that he was satisfied with the service and the program.

‘I always dreamed of walking 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 the aviation office, the UIA outing continues a popular obscure tourism tradition, allowing tens of thousands of visitors to explore the grim disaster area around Chernobyl and the deserted city of Pripyat before the Covid restrictions.

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

Honorary environment

Despite this, the pandemic 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”, made up 80% of all visitors, but a tidal wave of interest was limited to restrictions on global travel.

But Yemelyanenko is positive about the future of Chernobyl tourism. His company is working on new creative offerings that take advantage of the strange exclusion zone.

Recent tours have included kayaking in Chernobyl, Pripyat riverboat rides and extreme off-road rides in the zone. The company offers its own flying experience over Chernobyl, Pripyat and the Duga radar.

“When the full-fledged tourist link between the countries is finally restored, we will surprise even tourists who have been to the Chernobyl region many times,” Yemelyanenko added.

The grim history of the region, its ghost town and the vast landscape of 1000 square kilometers of abandoned structures, not to mention rumors of ghost stations, certainly attracts many people.

Some take part in official tours after obtaining the mandatory permit to visit the area. Others enter illegally and wander through radiation-contaminated places with the danger of incurring large fines.

‘Time machine’

“The idea to make museum rooms arose almost ten years ago when I first visited the Exclusion Zone and saw that all the buildings left behind in Pripyat had been looted,” Stanislav told CNN. He said he wanted to complete some restoration projects to show people what the spaces there looked like in the first days after the total evacuation of all Pripyat residents.

So far, they have brought to life a kitchen and a room in one of Pripyat’s apartments, as well as a few places in the nursery. However, 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 region were burnt down, including the former Soviet youth camp Izumrudnoye and a deserted village, Stara Markivka.

However, the exclusion zone seems to have a positive future.

In recent years, Ukraine has made an effort to rename Chernobyl from a shameful monument to incompetence and tragedy to what the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, called a ‘unique place on the planet where nature is reborn after the global man-made disaster ‘.

In 2019, Zelensky will sign a 2019 resolution on the development of tourism in the Chernobyl zone. New infrastructure projects and tourism routes bring a new hope to the deserted area.