Sunday, May 14, 2006
Mystery Prop Update: Transafrik
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Mystery Prop Update: Transafrik
In our last mystery-aircraft post, we were looking into the affairs of a firm called Transafrik, which operates 11 of CIA frontco Southern Air Transport's Hercules aircraft in Angola and holds UN contracts in various places. TA was based in Sao Tome for years, and I recently discovered that a Swiss merchant named Hellinger started it, but he sold up in 1993 or 1994. The biggest shareholder now is some strangelet entity called International Aircraft Management and Consulting. Well, the only Google result for that is on the TA website, but International Aircraft Management Consulting Ltd. apparently exists or existed in the Anglo-Caribbean taxdodger elysium known as the Turks and Caicos Islands, at 107 Duke Street, presumably in the capital Cockburn Town. It seems to have existed in 1994 (i.e. when Hellinger sold Transafrik).
At the time, Viktor Bout had a lucrative operation flying fuel to locations in Angola, both for the government and also for UNITA. Transafrik is described in a French TV documentary (thanks Cargodog!) as doing the same, on contract with Angolan state oil (Sonangol). Graft fans will remember Sonangol as being at the heart of the Elf-Aquitaine scandal, Angolan department, in which Elf was paying huge bribes to Angolan politicians in order to get their signatures on a contract with Sonangol to develop the country's oilfields. Further to that, the French government (the owner of Elf) was supplying arms from the ZTS Osos arsenal in Slovakia to the Angolan government via a state company, Sofremi, for which Charles Pasqua was responsible, and the arms dealers Arkadi Gaydamak and Pierre Falcone. Interestingly, the documentarists describe Transafrik as operating Boeing 707s - but no such aircraft has ever been registered to them.
However, informed sources in Angola say Transafrik served the MPLA side, and hence the government. The 707 may be a mistake, of course. 727s are present in their fleet, and the documentarist might have mistaken one of their DC8s for a 707. Possibly, the Transafrik they reported on was Trans African?
But the first time I ever heard of Viktor was in connection with Boeing 707 tankers in Angola. And can anyone tell me what on earth S9-BOP, Lockheed L-100 serial no. 4477, was doing getting itself destroyed in Luzamba, Angola whilst apparently wearing a Kazakh registration, UN-485, two months after arriving at Transafrik? Apart from delivering diesel fuel, that is. It wouldn't have surprised the plane any, though, as whilst it was with SAT it got photographed in Germany wearing "Alaska International" colours.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 11:46 AM
(9) comments
Comments:
S9-BOP was in fact ZS-RSD (Safir), the UN-485 was a temp registration used by TRANSAFRIK. Safair is registered in South Africa and was acquired by Imperial Holdings back in 1999..so what well..interestingly enough. CIA (yes the Langley one) aircraft Tail N4557C (L100-30 serial 5027) used to be ZS-JAG which is Safair..interesting how these guys always seem to have crossing paths.
# posted by Anonymous : 7:14 AM
comments? | x
cargodog @ 3:41PM | 2005-06-04| permalink
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=S9-CAX&distinct_entry=true
Things that make you go mmmmhhh!
CW @ 11:04PM | 2005-06-05| permalink
Alex it looks like you have a good link between the friends-of-Victor and Transafrik. But I believe there is a logical explanation for the "Alaska International" thing - Southern Air leased out the L-100s for several years before selling them outright.
Also this whole tangent is extremely relevant to the fate of our missing 727, N844AA, which was supposed to be in the same business - hauling diesel in Angola - only for the UNITA side.
CW @ 11:10PM | 2005-06-05| permalink
Also I think Safair leased S9-CAX from Transafrik - hence the new plain-white paintjob
While I think we're doing a pretty good job of looking into the still-extant L-100 fleet out there, but I believe most of these aircraft are only slightly shady, and not flying for either Victor or the CIA most of the time.
Alex @ 3:58PM | 2005-06-06| permalink
Slim Shady, I suppose you could say..
BTW, we've just upgraded the comments system, which is why some recent threads are missing. They should be back soon.
Chris Stiles @ 8:41PM | 2005-06-08| permalink
From the pprune boards in relation to a recent Antonov thread:
"Lots is made by many people about different aircraft seen at different times with the same Congolese registration.
The Congo has a large aviation fleet, but is one of the unfortunate countries with only 2 registration letters available, rather than the 3 most of us are used to. All Conglese civil aircraft are registered in the series 9Q-Cxx.
This means that Kinshasa has to "recycle" registrations much faster than most other countries, and coupled with the high attrition rate of Congolese aircraft, the same registration letters can be reallocted twice in a year."
Is this correct ? If it is I guess it works both ways - good way to deliberately create confusion.
Ruud @ 12:03AM | 2005-08-11| permalink
The UN-xxx serial you refer to is an added number to the aircraft for aircraft operating under UN-contract; in that case there should always be another tailnumber for the country of registration somewhere on the aircraft.
Alex @ 1:15PM | 2005-08-11| permalink
Yes, but it's also the Kazakh registry prefix. I suspect a lot of people have had a free pass because any aircraft with UN- on it is assumed to be a UN flight.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/06/mystery-prop-update-transafrik.html
Mystery Prop Update: Transafrik
In our last mystery-aircraft post, we were looking into the affairs of a firm called Transafrik, which operates 11 of CIA frontco Southern Air Transport's Hercules aircraft in Angola and holds UN contracts in various places. TA was based in Sao Tome for years, and I recently discovered that a Swiss merchant named Hellinger started it, but he sold up in 1993 or 1994. The biggest shareholder now is some strangelet entity called International Aircraft Management and Consulting. Well, the only Google result for that is on the TA website, but International Aircraft Management Consulting Ltd. apparently exists or existed in the Anglo-Caribbean taxdodger elysium known as the Turks and Caicos Islands, at 107 Duke Street, presumably in the capital Cockburn Town. It seems to have existed in 1994 (i.e. when Hellinger sold Transafrik).
At the time, Viktor Bout had a lucrative operation flying fuel to locations in Angola, both for the government and also for UNITA. Transafrik is described in a French TV documentary (thanks Cargodog!) as doing the same, on contract with Angolan state oil (Sonangol). Graft fans will remember Sonangol as being at the heart of the Elf-Aquitaine scandal, Angolan department, in which Elf was paying huge bribes to Angolan politicians in order to get their signatures on a contract with Sonangol to develop the country's oilfields. Further to that, the French government (the owner of Elf) was supplying arms from the ZTS Osos arsenal in Slovakia to the Angolan government via a state company, Sofremi, for which Charles Pasqua was responsible, and the arms dealers Arkadi Gaydamak and Pierre Falcone. Interestingly, the documentarists describe Transafrik as operating Boeing 707s - but no such aircraft has ever been registered to them.
However, informed sources in Angola say Transafrik served the MPLA side, and hence the government. The 707 may be a mistake, of course. 727s are present in their fleet, and the documentarist might have mistaken one of their DC8s for a 707. Possibly, the Transafrik they reported on was Trans African?
But the first time I ever heard of Viktor was in connection with Boeing 707 tankers in Angola. And can anyone tell me what on earth S9-BOP, Lockheed L-100 serial no. 4477, was doing getting itself destroyed in Luzamba, Angola whilst apparently wearing a Kazakh registration, UN-485, two months after arriving at Transafrik? Apart from delivering diesel fuel, that is. It wouldn't have surprised the plane any, though, as whilst it was with SAT it got photographed in Germany wearing "Alaska International" colours.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 11:46 AM
(9) comments
Comments:
S9-BOP was in fact ZS-RSD (Safir), the UN-485 was a temp registration used by TRANSAFRIK. Safair is registered in South Africa and was acquired by Imperial Holdings back in 1999..so what well..interestingly enough. CIA (yes the Langley one) aircraft Tail N4557C (L100-30 serial 5027) used to be ZS-JAG which is Safair..interesting how these guys always seem to have crossing paths.
# posted by Anonymous : 7:14 AM
comments? | x
cargodog @ 3:41PM | 2005-06-04| permalink
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=S9-CAX&distinct_entry=true
Things that make you go mmmmhhh!
CW @ 11:04PM | 2005-06-05| permalink
Alex it looks like you have a good link between the friends-of-Victor and Transafrik. But I believe there is a logical explanation for the "Alaska International" thing - Southern Air leased out the L-100s for several years before selling them outright.
Also this whole tangent is extremely relevant to the fate of our missing 727, N844AA, which was supposed to be in the same business - hauling diesel in Angola - only for the UNITA side.
CW @ 11:10PM | 2005-06-05| permalink
Also I think Safair leased S9-CAX from Transafrik - hence the new plain-white paintjob
While I think we're doing a pretty good job of looking into the still-extant L-100 fleet out there, but I believe most of these aircraft are only slightly shady, and not flying for either Victor or the CIA most of the time.
Alex @ 3:58PM | 2005-06-06| permalink
Slim Shady, I suppose you could say..
BTW, we've just upgraded the comments system, which is why some recent threads are missing. They should be back soon.
Chris Stiles @ 8:41PM | 2005-06-08| permalink
From the pprune boards in relation to a recent Antonov thread:
"Lots is made by many people about different aircraft seen at different times with the same Congolese registration.
The Congo has a large aviation fleet, but is one of the unfortunate countries with only 2 registration letters available, rather than the 3 most of us are used to. All Conglese civil aircraft are registered in the series 9Q-Cxx.
This means that Kinshasa has to "recycle" registrations much faster than most other countries, and coupled with the high attrition rate of Congolese aircraft, the same registration letters can be reallocted twice in a year."
Is this correct ? If it is I guess it works both ways - good way to deliberately create confusion.
Ruud @ 12:03AM | 2005-08-11| permalink
The UN-xxx serial you refer to is an added number to the aircraft for aircraft operating under UN-contract; in that case there should always be another tailnumber for the country of registration somewhere on the aircraft.
Alex @ 1:15PM | 2005-08-11| permalink
Yes, but it's also the Kazakh registry prefix. I suspect a lot of people have had a free pass because any aircraft with UN- on it is assumed to be a UN flight.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/06/mystery-prop-update-transafrik.html
# posted by Always @ 5:44 AM 
