<
https://medium.com/the-academic/dark-networks-the-2003-timor-leste-il-76-crash-and-the-global-air-cargo-shadow-industry-4e67ab377760>
"On the 31st of January 2003, a huge four-engine Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane
crashed just short of the poorly developed airstrip in the town of Baucau,
Timor-Leste, killing all six crewmembers. The crash was briefly noted by the
world press but never made headlines, nor would it have been likely to do so,
because accidents like it happen all the time.
Cargo flights into remote and impoverished warzones on behalf of short-lived
paper companies form a dangerous but essential underworld of the global
aviation industry, bringing crucial supplies and humanitarian aid into some of
the most desperate places on earth, while simultaneously supporting a shadow
industry of arms trafficking, human smuggling, tax evasion, and other criminal
enterprises. These flights crash with alarming regularity, but almost all of
these accidents are never properly investigated and very little is known about
them — sometimes basic facts such as the number of people killed, their
identities, and even whether the crash happened at all are left up for debate.
Due to a fortuitous geopolitical happenstance, the crash in Timor-Leste in 2003
did not meet that fate. The government of the tiny, newly independent island
nation instead invited Australia to investigate the cause of the crash and
publish a final report, shedding light on the realities of these fly-by-night
freight operations, as well as the difficult circumstances and poor
decision-making that doomed the six crew of the enormous Ilyushin. The
investigation also provided a starting point for me to dig into the history of
the owners and operators of the aircraft, in an effort to understand who was
responsible for the flight and their possible connections to the broader
industry of clandestine cargo. What I found was a confusing maze of shell
companies, conflicting records, leases and sub-leases and re-registrations. And
by the end, one thing was clear: whoever owned this plane didn’t want to be
found."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
