HOUMA, La. (WGNO) – You could say Andy Cook’s on a long-term Louisiana layover. Cook has a retired and renovated old airplane – a New Orleans Hornets Boeing 727, to be exact – practically in his backyard.
The airplane sits at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport just behind his house and now serves as a man cave of sorts.
Cook is an air traffic controller at the airport in Houma, Louisiana and has had a long career of guiding planes across the country. He loves planes, he says, always has – a passion that started when he was just a kid.
He embarked on his renovation project after watching the decommissioned aircraft collect dust at a nearby South Louisiana shipyard for two years, according to Houma Today.
Turning the scrap-bound plane into its present state was no easy task.
Cook said the aircraft was partially filled with muddy water that he emptied out by the bucketload. After cleaning the interior, he laid new carpeting, air conditioning, a speaker system and added a Hornets theme. He also positioned the “man cave” to face west so people in the cockpit could sit back and watch the sun set, according to Houma Today.
In its previous life, the plane flew for several NBA teams including the then-New Orleans Hornets.