Haaretz Investigation: Secret Flight Operating Between Israel And Gulf State
Haaretz analysis of publicly available data shows civilian plane following permanent flight path; Israel has no formal relations with Gulf states, and business ties decreased after 2010 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
By Barak Ravid and Avi Scharf | Dec. 2, 2014 | 6:00 AM
The airplane parked in a side lot at Ben-Gurion International Airport for the past several months does not attract any particular attention. But the plane, which bears a foreign flag on one side, is one of the more interesting of the hundreds of aircraft that take off and land at the airport every week.
A Haaretz analysis of publicly available online flight data indicates that this civilian plane follows what appears to be a permanent flight path between Ben-Gurion Airport and an airport in a Gulf state.
Israel’s relations with the Gulf states are extremely sensitive, however, and the flights are indirect because Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with the country in question.
The flight data indicate that after taking off from Ben-Gurion, the plane spends a few days in the Gulf state in question and then returns to Israel. There have been several flights between Israel and the Gulf state recently.
It remains unclear who or what is using the route, and whether that entity is Israeli. What is clear is that the Israel-Gulf route is being kept extremely low-profile.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.629457
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