North Korean plane impounded, tons of weapons seized in Thailand

North Korean plane impounded, tons of weapons seized in Thailand

www.nationmultimedia.com

Five Eastern European men were detained and their plane was impounded and grounded at Don Muang Airport on Saturday after it was found loaded with tons of war weapons.

Government Spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn declined to reveal where the plane was from and its its destination, saying Thai authorities are investigating the five men reportedly from Belarus and Kazakhstan.

A TV footage showed military trucks believed to be loaded with the confiscated weapons left Don Muang Airport. The footage also showed the grounded plane.

Thai TV reported that the weapons were transferred in the

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Details of this are just starting to appear in the Thai Press.

"Pol Lt Gen Thangai Prasajaksattru, commander of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), confirmed that five men from eastern Europe had been detained, but he did not yet know their nationalities.

"There were a lot of weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), missiles and other war weapons," he said.

Air Force spokesman Captain Montol Suchookorn and special branch police said that the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital Pyongyang.

"According to my information, the flight originated from North Korea. It was a cargo flight that requested to land at the civilian side of the airport," Montol said, adding that the Air Force was continuing to guard the aircraft.

AoT, the airport operator, said Don Mueang airport remained open to passengers."


-- Agencies & Bangkok Post 2009-12-12
www.bangkokpost.com...

The original story in the Bangkok Post doesn't say that the plane originated from Pyongyang but I found this on a website. Looks fishy to me. I'm not sure why the Bangkok Post calls it a North Korean Plane but provides no other information. I will update as more information arrives.

www.nationmultimedia.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 12-12-2009 by deessell]

[edit on 12-12-2009 by deessell]

Looks like it did not "originate" from North Korea. It was coming back from there though. It also lists its designation number. Should be able to find out a bit more from that. Its picture though show a tail number of 4L-AWA.

Plane with war material from North Korea impounded in Thailand

Russian-built IL-76 military air transport bearing the designation AWG 732

the plane earlier arrived at Don Mueang airport once in the morning for refueling before departing for North Korea after it had loaded with the heavy weaponry and asked to refuel again at the airport at 4pm.

Thai authorities found massive numbers of the shoulder-launched missile weapon including rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), anti-aircraft SAM (surface to air missiles) and ammunition.

Thai authorities said the airplane was believed to be carrying the weapons to Sri Lanka

I'd like to know what that plane carried to North Korea.

The "4L" designator from the aircraft registration belongs to Georgia. So, I wonder what a cargo aircraft full of weapons is doing flying out of North Korea and where they were bound for and, more importantly, where the arms were bound for and who fronted the money.
Georgia, being the USA and Israel's new best friend only makes it more intriguing!

Of course, the fact that the plane is registered in Georgia may just be a convenience thing.

What will happen to all the weapons? Surely the plan won't be allowed to take off carrying all them?

There is conflicting information regarding the destination of the plane. Considering it was low on fuel we would have to assume that the plane was destined for somewhere fairly close to Thailand; Cambodia or Burma? Some press reports are suggesting Sri Lanka.

reply to post by Britguy

The aircraft being registered there doesn`t necessarily mean anything. That particular cargo company may have been hired because of any nbumber of factors.

A search on AirFrames.org shows AWG = Air West operated out of Georgia.

A search on AirLiners.net shows an IL-76 listed for Air West, seen mostly in Germany, and United Arab Emirates back in 2005 - 2007.

Thats all I've got so far.

reply to post by makeitso

AWG is just the callsign. It could and probably does change every flight. If you want to find it, search by the tail number and leave out the AWG.

Okey Dokey.

AWA is registered as Asia Wings JSC, Kazakhstan according to Airframes.org.

According to Aviation Safety.net Asia Wings of Kazakhstan is banned in the EU.

ASIA WINGS Air Operator Certificate AK-0390-09 AWA Republic of Kazakhstan.

Its also banned in Baharain

reply to post by makeitso

4L-AWA is an IL-76 Mainstay that appears to be registered to Air Wings Georgia. The AWG callsign was used by the now defunct Aerowings.

Sounds like Chechnian Airways to me.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks.

I didn't find anything about that, but I found this.

Tons of weapons seized from plane ex-NKorea, 5 foreigners held at Thai airport

an Ilyushin 76 transport from Kazakhstan

And this, keep in mind its a google translation and does not seem 100% accurate.

Crime Suppression 5 constraint pilot control - together possess weapons charge.

foreigners comprised 5 people said Alex SAN between sites associated Asset Management Limited (Alexandr Zrybnev) age 53 years, Mr. Victor Alberto La Balance drug Software (Viktor Abdullayev). 58-year-old Tata said Victor Lee Sun Dot Software (Vitaliy Shumkov) age 54 years, Mr. Mikhail Coffee Sarah Lewis Drug Inc. (ILyas Issakov) all of nationality, age 53, Kazakhstan. (Mikhail Petukhou) อายุ 54 Mr. Mikhail P. Two pairs (Mikhail Petukhou) Age 54 years Nationality Belarus.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4b41e0325034.jpg[/atsimg]

May I present two possibilities.....

1) Weapons and parts headed to N.K.
This can be guns/gun/tank/artillery parts/plane parts......

2) This might be weapons/parts originating from N.K. and headed to:
Iran/Syria/Hamas terrorist's/hezbolla terrorists/Chechen terrorists-I am sure Russia would just love that...

Reminds me of those boat loads of weapons intercepted by Israel headed to Hamas/Hezbolla terrorists.

reply to post by makeitso


Here is Asia Wing's website:

Asia Wings

Apparently they also have offices in Hanoi.

Other countries are finally taking America's lead... and their simple reason is... "Why should the US goverment be the only ones to smuggle drugs and blackmarket weapons."

There is still a lot of confusion. Many sites say the plane was from Kazakhzstan.

The Bankock Post say they believe the plane was registered in Russia or Georgia.
and

One suspect told authorities that the aircraft flew from Russia to North Korea where the weapons were loaded.

One unconfirmed report says the plane had made regular trips across the region.

The Sunday Times says Shri Lanka was probably not the final destination.

In Colombo, officials said such an aircraft could not have landed in any of Sri Lanka's airports without prior authorization. Moreover, with the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas, they said, there was no way large quantities of weapons could be illegally delivered by air.

The Wall Street Journal claims

The air force officer said the aircraft was flown by a special-forces team from Georgia.

[edit on 12/12/09 by makeitso]

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
May I present two possibilities.....

1) Weapons and parts headed to N.K.
This can be guns/gun/tank/artillery parts/plane parts......

2) This might be weapons/parts originating from N.K. and headed to:
Iran/Syria/Hamas terrorist's/hezbolla terrorists/Chechen terrorists-I am sure Russia would just love that...

Reminds me of those boat loads of weapons intercepted by Israel headed to Hamas/Hezbolla terrorists.

The plane was allegedly heading to Sri Lanka. What concerns me is what will happen to all the weapons. The are supposed to be destroyed but that is just not going to happen, they will be sold. Don't forget there is still a volatile situation down in the south of Thailand.

There is also problems with Cambodia, Thaksin was made a financial advisor there and this is causing some back lash.

AP

Giorgy Bokuchava, the head of Georgian transport administration, confirmed the plane belongs to Air West but said it was leased last month to the SP Trading, a company in Ukraine

ABS-CBN

"Air West Georgia is registered in Batumi, Georgia, but its office is physically located in Ukraine. The airplane in question was leased to the Ukrainian company SP Transporting Limited," he said.

Officials in Kazakhstan said the aircraft had previously been owned by a Kazakh airline before being sold to the Georgian firm two months ago.

"This aircraft was previously in the register of Kazakhstan and was sold to a Georgian airline by our private airline and removed from the state register of Kazakhstan on October 7, 2009," Radilbek Adimolda, the head of Kazakhstan's Civil Aviation Commission told reporters in the capital Astana.

"Until spring of this year it belonged to private Kazakh airline, East Wing. It was then bought by Kazakh airline Beibarys, which in turn in October of this year sold the plane to Georgian airline Air West Georgia"

But adding to the mystery, Kazakh officials said the aircraft had been leased by the Georgian firm to a company operating out of New Zealand with a name similar to one mentioned by Georgian officials.

"According to the information of the Kazakh diplomatic mission in Thailand and competent organs in Kazakhstan, the detained Ilyushin-76 aircraft was... rented to a New Zealand company, SP Trading Limited, to carry out the delivery of cargo," Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov told reporters.

BBC

"They thought it was a civilian freight flight, carrying oil-drilling pipes and other equipment for oil drilling," said defence lawyer Somsak Saithong.

"They have delivered such equipment a few times," the lawyer said, adding that three of the crew were trained pilots.

[edit on 12/14/09 by makeitso]

Seized Weapons linked to Victor Bout

Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the plane had also been registered under a company named Beibars, linked to the Serbian arms trafficker Tomislav Damnjanovic, and with three companies identified by the US Treasury as companies controlled by Mr Bout.

Mr Griffiths is monitoring air cargo companies involved in arms trafficking. ”They are like flocks of migrating birds, these aircraft. They change from one company to another because the previous company has either been closed down for safety reasons or been identified in a UN trafficking report,” he said.

The arms dealers had changed the plane’s country of registration to Georgia because the EU had banned all cargo carriers registered in Kazakhstan, where Beibars is registered.

Mr Griffiths said the past owners of the aircraft had been documented by the UN as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. He said the plane had also been used to ship arms from the Balkans to Burundi in October.