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Qaddafi’s Mile-High Club

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To read a dispatch from Qaddafi's plane, click here.

Since Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi lost control of Tripoli and went into hiding, Libyan rebels have seized many of his personal belongings as trophies -- everything from gilded AK-47s to photo books of former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But the biggest trophy so far has been the capture of Qaddafi's private plane, the "Afriqiyah One" Airbus A340, purchased in 2003 for about $120 million. On Mon., Aug. 29, rebels took turns posing on the aircraft's gaudy leather furniture and in its cockpit. Afriqiyah Airways, the national flag carrier, was based in Tripoli -- and this particular plane has been grounded since NATO imposed the no-fly zone over Libya six months ago. Other Afriqiyah planes were destroyed over the course of NATO's bombing campaign.

Above, a Libyan rebel lies on the bed in Qaddafi's plane.

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A Libyan rebel sits amid Qaddafi luxury souvenirs in the Airbus plane at Tripoli's airport on Aug. 29.

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A rebel sits in the cockpit of Qaddafi's plane on Aug. 29.

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Libyan rebels leave Qaddafi's personal plane via a makeshift staircase on Aug. 29 in Tripoli.

PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images

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    550254_110830_Plane5_1228391412.jpg

    A rebel flashes victory signs at the door of Qaddafi's plane in Tripoli on Aug. 29.

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    550255_110830_Plane6_122861916_picnik2.jpg

    Libyan rebels rest on a charred Afriqiyah Airways plane, destroyed in the NATO bombing campaign, in Tripoli on Aug. 29.


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    550256_110830_Plane7_122942959_picnik2.jpg

    A Libyan rebel stands guard over a destroyed Afriqiyah Airways plane in Tripoli on Aug. 29.

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    550257_110830_Plane8_835089232.jpg

    Qaddafi exits his personal plane on a trip to Moscow in October 2008.

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    550258_110830_Plane92.jpg

    In perhaps the most infamous use of Qaddafi's personal plane, Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, the dictators' son and heir apparent, speaks to freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, aboard the plane as it brought him back home to Tripoli on Aug. 20, 2009.

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