Engineer Dave Billings, 45, lowered the three-tonne Bmibaby Boeing 737-500 fuselage into a 14ft-deep hole at his Derbyshire home, where it will become part of an extraordinary underground bunker and party pad
A dad has buried a Boeing 737 he picked up on Facebook for just £4,000 in his back garden, with plans to transform it into an underground war bunker and party den. Engineer Dave Billings, 45, lowered the three-tonne Bmibaby Boeing 737-500 fuselage into a 14ft-deep pit at his Derbyshire home, where it will form part of a remarkable subterranean hideout.
The decommissioned jet will be connected to an expansive nuclear bunker Dave has spent years constructing beneath his property in Hilton, drawing inspiration from the classic POW film The Great Escape. The ambitious project, which has already set him back at least £50,000, boasts a labyrinth of tunnels, concealed rooms and secret entrances.
Dave believes it could even keep his family entirely self-sufficient for months should World War Three ever erupt. The enormous aircraft shell was carefully winched into the ground by a crew of helpers last month.
Plane accessed via lift
Dave now intends to install a lift shaft concealed within a traditional red phone box, ferrying visitors down into the buried aircraft. The engineer revealed that his eight-year-old son Oliver, who is mad about planes, sparked the purchase – though wife Beth took a little more persuading.
He said: “Beth did wonder why I was spending money on an old plane and said it was junk, but she’s coming round now. It’s primarily a fun thing to have and a place for us to have parties and relax, but it could be made into a fallout shelter.
“The whole thing will be buried under concrete and soil, so the top will be around two-and-a-half feet underground. It will have electricity and water, but we are also putting solar panels on the top and it has a borehole to a water supply.
“The plane toilet will be converted into a usable toilet connected to our septic tank. The structure will have its own ventilation system too. Depending on the amount of food we have down there, we could be off-grid for a long time if need be.”
Fun before survival
Dave maintains the bunker is primarily about enjoyment rather than survival, despite its capability to serve as a refuge should a major conflict arise.
He said: “I’m still building this for fun at the moment. If I was a prepper, I’d be stopping everything else to get on with it.
“I do these things because they’re cool, I enjoy it. But this one’s a cool thing that’s got a purpose; it can be classed as functional. If things escalate and it is going to be needed, I can speed the job up, but I don’t think anyone will bomb the Derbyshire Dales.”
Dave purchased the stripped-out fuselage with mates in December 2025 and had it transported home for £4,000. He reckons it will require another £8,000 in concrete, £3,000 in reinforcing mesh and £2,000 in insulation before the aircraft is completely buried and secured beneath the ground.
And that’s before even accounting for the food, drink and beer he intends to stock inside. Along with barrels for the bar, Dave is hoping to store sufficient supplies to last anywhere between three and six months.
He has chronicled the remarkable project on his YouTube channel, Tornado Dave, and revealed he planned to have it completed by next February.
Dave added: “Beth said it must be finished before our tenth wedding anniversary, so I’ve got a very firm deadline to meet.”
He also intends to seek retrospective planning permission for the venture.
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