Sunday, May 14, 2006
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
An-26 Down in DRC
In the eastern DR Congo, an Antonov 26B has been destroyed in an accident, including everyone on board. According to Aviation Safety Network it was ER-AZT, serial number 97309005, with either "Galaxie" or "Kavatshi Airlines". ER- is Moldovan registry. I have no further information at the moment regarding who the hell G/K are. There are an enormous number of one-plane operators in the region, who lose aircraft with bloody and monotonous regularity. Some of them have connections with more important networks - some do not...
On another Viktor Bout-related issue, an anonymous commenter informs us that Ishtar Airlines of Baghdad, subject of a recent post (see Thursday, August 18, 2005), which is operating with aircraft leased from seriously dodgy characters like Dolphin Air (ex-Flying Dolphin and Santa Cruz Imperial) and African Express, is owned by none other than the Governor of Basra. African Express's aircraft come from HA Airlines/Star Air of Jordan and Air Leone of Equatorial Guinea, both of which are the work of Paddy McKay, a mercenary associated with Executive Outcomes, Sandline and Strategic Resource Corp whose airline was kicked out of Sierra Leone for being too dodgy, Phoenix Aviation, a firm associated with Viktor Bout and Chris Barrett-Jolley which is banned from UK airspace, and Trans Air Congo.
Apparently, Ishtar has (thanks to another commenter) the contract to move KBR's personnel about Iraq as a subcontractor to Skylink Air & Logistics. They won the deal from none other than...Phoenix. D'you think the Governor had some influence in that? Naaahhh! Strangely enough, the same B737-200 leased to Ishtar by Dolphin is also meant to be on lease to Iraqi Airways (yes, the one whose planes are mysteriously registered in Sierra Leone). So it would appear that the Guv'nor has just borrowed an Iraqi Airways plane for his private profit...which is pretty twisted, but not entirely surprising.
What's scarier is that according to the anonymous comment, Ishtar is trying to buy into Kuwait Airways.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 12:19 PM
(2) comments
Comments:
Paddy J. McKay also ran or runs a company called Fast Aerospace out of the UAE. Links all over central Asia and Afghanistan.
# posted by Anonymous : 3:47 PM
An-26 Down in DRC
In the eastern DR Congo, an Antonov 26B has been destroyed in an accident, including everyone on board. According to Aviation Safety Network it was ER-AZT, serial number 97309005, with either "Galaxie" or "Kavatshi Airlines". ER- is Moldovan registry. I have no further information at the moment regarding who the hell G/K are. There are an enormous number of one-plane operators in the region, who lose aircraft with bloody and monotonous regularity. Some of them have connections with more important networks - some do not...
On another Viktor Bout-related issue, an anonymous commenter informs us that Ishtar Airlines of Baghdad, subject of a recent post (see Thursday, August 18, 2005), which is operating with aircraft leased from seriously dodgy characters like Dolphin Air (ex-Flying Dolphin and Santa Cruz Imperial) and African Express, is owned by none other than the Governor of Basra. African Express's aircraft come from HA Airlines/Star Air of Jordan and Air Leone of Equatorial Guinea, both of which are the work of Paddy McKay, a mercenary associated with Executive Outcomes, Sandline and Strategic Resource Corp whose airline was kicked out of Sierra Leone for being too dodgy, Phoenix Aviation, a firm associated with Viktor Bout and Chris Barrett-Jolley which is banned from UK airspace, and Trans Air Congo.
Apparently, Ishtar has (thanks to another commenter) the contract to move KBR's personnel about Iraq as a subcontractor to Skylink Air & Logistics. They won the deal from none other than...Phoenix. D'you think the Governor had some influence in that? Naaahhh! Strangely enough, the same B737-200 leased to Ishtar by Dolphin is also meant to be on lease to Iraqi Airways (yes, the one whose planes are mysteriously registered in Sierra Leone). So it would appear that the Guv'nor has just borrowed an Iraqi Airways plane for his private profit...which is pretty twisted, but not entirely surprising.
What's scarier is that according to the anonymous comment, Ishtar is trying to buy into Kuwait Airways.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 12:19 PM
(2) comments
Comments:
Paddy J. McKay also ran or runs a company called Fast Aerospace out of the UAE. Links all over central Asia and Afghanistan.
# posted by Anonymous : 3:47 PM
# posted by Always @ 3:17 PM 
