Illegal operations: the unusual triangulation that Iran does to buy planes in the midst of international sanctions

days ago a strange movement caught the attention of some spotters of airplanes, aviation enthusiasts who passionately follow the movement of aircraft around the globe, when 4 planes mysteriously disappeared from radar.

The Twitter user @Gerjon_, specialized in tracking aircraft in the Middle East and Africa, detected four Airbus A340 aircraftregistered in Burkina Faso, which took off from Johannesburg (South Africa), but which they disappeared over iranwhen the declared route indicated that they should go to Uzbekistan, this can be corroborated in a screenshot of Flightradar24 that he shared on the social network.

The maneuver was immediately related to a Iranian regime’s method of avoiding US sanctionswhich prohibit aircraft manufacturing companies from selling aircraft containing US-made parts to Iranian airlines.

Thus, through this maneuver, Iran would have managed to incorporate 4 Airbus A340 into the local fleets, French-made aircraft that, although they were produced until 2011, are more modern devices than those of Iranian airlines.

The four aircraft, which had been identified by the crew with the codes MAN3808, MAN3809, MAN3810 and MAN3811, had previously belonged to Turkish Airlines, a company that withdrew them in March and April 2019. They were later acquired by Avro Global from Hong Kong and then transferred and stored at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg until the end of December, at which time the evasive maneuver took place.

In other words, the four devices were stored at the Johannesburg airport for years, until they were registered in Burkina Faso, and later arrived in Iranwhen on the route of the flights it had been declared that they were going to Uzbekistan.

As detailed by various media, the planes did indeed arrive in Iran, in fact a satellite from the Airbus defense division captured an image in which they can be seen all 4 aircraft at Mehrabad International Airportin the city of Tehran, the Iranian capital.

This image, like the mysterious route, was shared through a tweet by Gerjon, confirming that the devices had landed in Iran.

After confirming the suspicions that the planes had landed in Iran, the spokesman for the Iranian Civil Aviation Administration (CAO), Hassan Khoshkoconfirmed that the Airbus A340 were on Iranian soil and that they had been purchased to serve a local airline, although it did not specify which one and did not give further details.

In September, an official with Iran’s air travel services had said the reason for the lack of tickets and high prices was because a large number of the country’s planes were grounded, Iran International reported.

“Most airline-owned planes are grounded because they need spare parts and it is impossible to provide them because of the sanctions,” he said, adding that only 120 to 130 planes out of about 340 are operational.

Iran’s civil aircraft shortage dates back to the 1990s, and from then until now the regime has used various evasive methods to procure newer aircraft or buy spare parts through middlemen, but despite this the overall condition of its fleet has deteriorated. deteriorated.

In 2015, thanks to the nuclear agreement (JCPOA), sanctions on the purchase of Western aircraft had been suspended, which led Iran to start talks with Boeing and Airbus to buy new aircraft, although it did get some units, the administration of donald trump it never approved the sale of US planes until Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018, and thus sanctions on the Middle Eastern country returned.

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