Hot Air

The ramblings of an avgeek

Every logbook entry tells a story...

I made my first flight in 1979 – a ten minute ‘experience’ flight in a Piper Seneca from Land’s End in the far west of Cornwall. This flight was to prepare me and my mum, both first timers, for our imminent inclusive tour flights to and from Rimini on a British Caledonian BAC1-11. Since then, I have been assiduous, or was that ‘sad’, in keeping a log of each of the flight sectors I have taken. 46 years later, I have a record of each of the 976 separate flights taken. I record date, airline, flight number, aircraft type, aircraft registration, from/to, duration of the flight and other ‘interesting notes’ which can include aircraft fleet name, diversion, emergency landing et al. Over the years this record has proved invaluable in trying to remember how I got to a particular location and indeed interesting and long forgotten titbits.

Faced with the eternal question of what to do on those cold winter evenings in Somerset? Earlier this year I decided to look into the current location or fate of some of the aircraft on which I have flown. Among the host of aircraft long withdrawn, flying for third parties or broken up, I came across a fascinating story involving an Airbus A340-300 on which I had flown to Dubai in December 2012.

On a business trip to the MEBAA corporate aviation show in the UAE, I connected in Istanbul from Málaga to a Turkish Airlines flight to DXB. TK762 took just under four hours and was operated by Airbus A340-311 TC-JDM (c/n 115) named ‘Izmir’. This particular A340 had been delivered new to Turkish on the 19th April 1996. A quick check of the available data suggested that ‘my aircraft’ had had a rather more interesting history after making its final revenue flight for the airline on the 8th January 2019.

The current status has this A340 now registered in Iran as EP-MJC with major local carrier Mahan Air. It was apparently leased in March 2024 and entered revenue service from Tehran on the 19th of that month. What struck me, and other commentators, was its history, and that of three sisterships in the years after each was withdrawn from service with Turkish Airlines a year before the pandemic. The fundamental question, and one which appeals to my forensic mind, and indeed opens up a huge ‘can of worms’, is how the aircraft ended up in Iran in the first place - a country subject to rigorous international sanctions and unable to source modern western built aircraft, technology and powerplant.

What follows is my take on the back story of these Airbus A340s and other aircraft which seem to have ended up in Iran under the noses of western governments. Rigorous sanctions on the Iranian regime have been in place and largely unchanged since the revolution in 1979 and the later Iran-Iraq war. For a brief period from 2016, during hopes for a deal on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, sanctions were loosened and a small number of new aircraft were delivered, and many more ordered. This window closed again in 2018; full sanctions were reapplied and orders unfulfilled.

Under the terms of current international sanctions, Iranian airlines are not allowed to order new aircraft from OEMs and the purchase options for second-hand aircraft using western parts are virtually nil. Despite this, and to the disbelief of those of us interested in this sector, these aircraft continue to turn up in Tehran under the noses of western governments. The story of ‘my’ Turkish Airlines A340 demonstrates a familiar pattern which, under international law, is in contravention of these sanctions.

Over the last few years, the former Turkish Airlines aircraft referenced here, have joined or been joined by a host of elderly aircraft. Numerous departure flight plans from long-term storage to third party states have featured diversions enroute to airports in Iran. These flights are now far more visible following the detailed monitoring of flight trackers through social media. Generally, after a period of time these aircraft, almost without exception, appear on the Iranian aircraft register and start undertaking commercial flights for Iranian carriers.

Turkish Airlines operated a fleet of seven Airbus A340-300 (4 -311 and 3 -313X). The four aircraft which ended up in Iran are the four newest airframes. According to the latest data, three of the four are in commercial service, while the fourth remains stored in Tehran.

A bit of digging confirms a familiar pattern for each of the four aircraft.

• Each of the aircraft made their last revenue flights for Turkish Airlines between September 2018 and January 2019.

• The aircraft were stored for a few months in Istanbul before being ferried, all white, to Johannesburg OR Tambo (JNB).

• All four aircraft were registered to Hong Kong based AVRO Global Ltd. and registered in Guernsey under 2- reg.

• After lengthy storage in JNB the aircraft were re-registered in Burkina Faso in early December 2022.

• The aircraft filed flight plans for a destination in Uzbekistan and departed JNB on the 23rd December 2022 under an unknown ‘MAN’ callsign.

• On entering Iranian airspace all four aircraft ‘diverted’ to Tehran Mehrabad airport.

• A few days later, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization confirmed that the aircraft had been purchased by Iran.

• Between August 2023 and March 2024, after storage in Tehran, three of the four aircraft received Iranian registrations and entered service with Mahan Air.

The bottom line is that these stored aircraft went through changes of ownership and registration and arrived in Iran to help satisfy the country’s demand for ‘newer’ aircraft. What is also clear from investigation is that these four aircraft are not alone.

In May 2022, three A340s – two A340-600s (one ex. Virgin Atlantic and one formerly with Etihad) and one A340-300 (ex Iberia), arrived for storage in Šiauliai in Lithuania. Each was re-registered in The Gambia. On 29th February 2024, two of the aircraft (the -300 C5-MIA and the former Etihad -600 C5-MIC) filed flight plans, variously reported as Colombo or Clark in the Philippines, but diverted to Iranian airports while enroute. It is testament to the power of social media that FR24 tracking screenshots for these aircraft were posted and followed in real time until the transponders ‘disappeared’ over Iran.

Just this month, history has repeated itself again and of course generated another wave of interest. Five former Singapore Airlines (and latterly NokScoot) Boeing 777-200s, after periods of storage were re-registered in Madagascar and flew from Siem Reap in Cambodia to airports in Iran. The expectation is that they too will take Iranian registration and join an Iranian airline, most likely Mahan Air. It is believed that up to five more may follow but of course subject to ever increasing scrutiny.

The detail above grew on a purely personal level out of curiosity of what happened to a particular aircraft after I flew on it. Although vaguely aware of the four former Turkish A340s and their appearance in Iran I had not realised until scratching the surface that there is a far bigger story here. Over the years I have spent a lot of time working with aircraft registries worldwide. Clients are always warned about ‘registries of convenience’. Clearly from the back story of ‘my’ A340 there are questions for some to answer.

To read more of my musings click HERE

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