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Magnus Midtbø found hidden exit at landmined Željava Air Base

He climbed about 60 meters up rusty pipes inside the bunker with one hand, three weeks after thumb surgery.

Magnus Midtbø found a mountainside opening inside Željava Air Base that did not appear on any map he had checked. The Cold War underground airfield lies on the Croatia-Bosnia border, where unmarked landmines still ring the abandoned runways and bunkers.

Yugoslavia built the base so aircraft could keep operating if a nuclear war destroyed everything above ground. Some estimates put the project at around $5 billion. In 1992, as war spread across the region, the military blew up much of the interior to keep the site from falling into enemy hands.

Magnus Midtbø and his cameraman Sam stayed on paths after hearing that a man had been killed by a mine in the early 2000s. They wandered deep tunnels, past a power plant and rooms scarred by deliberate explosions, but never found the rumored secret control room.

Midtbø climbed vertical pipes and broken ladders toward a blocked upper level while Sam waited below. Midtbø had only one hand free; he had broken a thumb and had surgery three weeks earlier. He told viewers not to copy the climb.

Dark red liquid dripped down the shaft. At the top he saw small bones and cigarette butts on the ledges. He later showed Sam a jaw fragment with teeth and said he thought it came from a dog or cat, not a person.

The climb took him to another floor and a pulley system, then the small hidden entrance. He looked out at the mountains without stepping far, worried about mines right outside. He down-climbed the same 50 to 60 meters, picking his way past loose rungs he had used on the way up.

Police patrol the complex twice daily because smugglers cross the border inside the mountain. Midtbø and Sam heard voices and saw a distant headlamp but stayed hidden and kept moving.

Source video: I Explored a Secret Military Base Surrounded by Landmines