Abandoned and decaying: What’s left inside Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ after years grounded?

For nearly a decade, the Boeing 727 once owned by Jeffrey Epstein has sat motionless on an outdoor slab in Brunswick, Georgia — its once-polished fuselage streaked with grime, its engines removed, its interior frozen in a kind of disquieting time capsule.Nicknamed the “Lolita Express” by the press, a moniker not used in official aviation records but widely associated with the aircraft in court filings and media coverage, the 133-foot jet was described by federal prosecutors as a vehicle used to shuttle young victims between Epstein’s properties. Flight logs placed an array of high-profile passengers aboard over the years, from former US president Bill Clinton to the now disgraced former Britain’s Prince Andrew.

And, according to a rare on-board visit by a New York Post reporter, the interior remains eerily intact, decaying in slow motion under Georgia humidity.

A jet built for power and privacy

The Boeing 727, nearly 60 years old, was acquired in January 2001 by JEGE Inc., a Delaware-based company tied to Epstein and referenced in court proceedings. Aviation records show Epstein retained ownership for almost two decades. The plane’s tail number, N908JE, the last two letters widely understood to reference his initials, appeared on the fuselage and on monogrammed items inside the cabin.

In other bathroom cabinets, napkins bearing “N909JE,” the tail number of another aircraft linked to Epstein, were reportedly discovered.

The aircraft’s last recorded flight took place on July 11, 2016, travelling from Palm Beach International Airport to Brunswick Golden Isles Airport. Soon after, its three engines were stripped and sold. Without engines and with its registration expired since 2019, it can no longer legally or mechanically fly. In December 2018, months before his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019, Epstein quietly sold the jet to World Aviation Services LLC, a Florida-based company, according to title history records. The company’s owner later told reporters that the plane had initially been purchased with the intention of selling it on or salvaging parts. Upon learning of its connection to Epstein’s crimes, the owner decided instead to dismantle it. In July 2024, the aircraft reportedly changed hands again, purchased by Jet Assets Incorporated, a Laramie, Wyoming-based company about which little public information is available. Individuals associated with the company have not publicly commented. Despite initial plans for demolition, the jet has remained intact at Stambaugh Aviation, accruing an estimated $1,000 per month in storage fees, tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

“It’s in a significantly degraded condition, it’s sat there for 10 years, it has no engines…any airplane in that degraded of a condition would never fly again,” Scott Stambaugh, who owns the aviation facility, told the New York Post, describing any attempt at restoration as “monumental” and prohibitively expensive. From the outside, the once-pristine white body is now streaked dark grey, weathered by southern humidity.

The aircraft is parked between planes formerly owned by actor John Travolta and fashion executive Peter Nygard, an uncomfortable proximity given the controversies attached to both men.

A decaying interior frozen in time

Entering via the rear staircase, reportedly left open, visitors are met with what one New York Post reporter described as a “nose-curdling musty stench”, intensified by near-total darkness. The aircraft has been without power since 2016. Inside, the jet’s layout remains visible: a bedroom, three separate sitting areas, two bathrooms and a galley kitchen. The finishes, polished wood, high-pile carpeting, mirrored walls and upholstered seating, were once designed to evoke exclusivity. Today, insects and mildew coat much of the interior. In the main bathroom, reporters found Johnson’s-brand baby lotion and baby powder tucked into cabinets, alongside toiletries, monogrammed napkins and paper towels marked with the aircraft’s tail number.

Mouldy shaving cream cans, used toothbrushes and orange-and-yellow hair ties lay scattered among dirty towels.

In the lone bedroom, where victims including Virginia Giuffre have alleged abuse took place, a king-sized mattress remained neatly made beneath a white comforter. Three emergency oxygen masks dangled overhead. Nearby, a nightstand drawer contained what was described as a disassembled satellite phone.

In the cockpit, a black landline handset with its cord ripped from the wall had been shoved into a drawer. A yellow emergency beacon labelled “N908JE” sat with expired registration papers.

Other remnants include stacked black-and-white linen placemats in the galley, empty water bottles, an instant coffee tin, binders filled with flight manuals and aviation documents, and closets still stocked with books and files. The décor in parts of the cabin is striking. One sitting room is upholstered almost entirely in red crushed velvet, covering walls, couch and armchairs, punctuated by a single contrasting chair and red table. Another lounge area features two grey half-moon couches facing one another before the galley. A final seating space near the cockpit includes mirrored walls, plush benches and a long wooden table. The jet once ferried politicians, business figures and celebrities.

Old photographs show Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell aboard; another widely circulated image shows Clinton seated in one of the red chairs with an unidentified woman on his lap. None of those images have been tied to proven criminal conduct by the individuals pictured.

Prosecutors, however, have stated in court filings that Epstein used the aircraft to transport victims between properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico and his private island in the US Virgin Islands.

A wider investigation and lingering questions

Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019, officially ruled a suicide by hanging. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted of sex trafficking offences and is serving a prison sentence. The aircraft remains a physical artefact of that network. In the United Kingdom, Essex Police have said they are reviewing information emerging from released case files suggesting that Epstein arranged private flights into and out of Stansted Airport, allegedly to transport girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. Former British prime minister Gordon Brown wrote in the New Statesman that documents showed the jet made 90 flights to or from UK airports, including 15 after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Brown also claimed Epstein “boasted” about low airport charges at Stansted and described it as a transfer point between aircraft.

Essex Police confirmed they are assessing “information that has emerged in relation to private flights into and out of Stansted Airport.” Meanwhile, the aircraft itself remains grounded, both physically and symbolically. At Stambaugh Aviation, the owner has said the jet was originally slated to be “cut up” and scrapped. Those plans never materialised. Instead, the 727 sits exposed to heat, humidity and corrosion, its once-luxurious interior collapsing into decay.