The MM6833 mistery solved

My previous post dealing with the so-called Warner Village F-104 that I published here:
http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/the-mm6833-or-6785-mistery/
ended with the following question: “Which F-104 was on the truck on May 9 2008 and where was it going?”.
Well, after investigating a lot, I finally can answer that question: no one.
Briefly: last year I visited the relic of an F-104 wearing code 5-25 and tail serial MM6833 (even if it was a composite and the centre section belonged to the MM6785). The aircraft in a supermarket parking area next to the Warner Village and it was cannibalized and covered with graffiti. On Jun. 30 I discovered that the aircraft had been removed. Some days later, Matteo Marianeschi sent me some pictures of the MM6833 on a truck. Since the F-104 appeared almost completely cleaned from all the graffiti, the Warner Village F-104 was not in its previous location on June 30 and Matteo affirmed that the pictures were taken on May 9, 2008, I deduced the aircraft had been cleaned and moved to another location. Until I received an email from Johan Mulder of the Dutch Aviation Society – Scramble, who told me he had visited the relic after May 9, on May 25, 2008.
In order to solve the mistery, I asked Matteo to check again the date the pictures were taken and he finally discovered that the pictures were taken in 2006 (or 2005!), perhaps when the aircraft was moving to the supermarket’s parking area!
So, the MM6833/6785 was not cleaned and restored but most probably trashed.

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.