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Самый первый западный самолёт «Белавиа» был продан Ирану 2,5 года назад — подтвердилось это только сейчас
In June 2021, Belavia announced the decommissioning of its very first Western-made plane. It was a Boeing 737-500 with registration number EW-250PA, which had been flying for the airline for 17 years.
Недавно мы вывели из эксплуатации Boeing 737-500 (EW-250PA). Это первый западный самолет Belavia – а первую любовь, как вы знаете, помнят очень долго😌
За 17 лет в Belavia на нем выполнили 17 596 рейсов. Налет – 30 739 часов. Впечатляет, правда? pic.twitter.com/J2oAXnq7fA
— Belavia Airlines (@Belavia_by) June 18, 2021
After decommissioning, the plane stood for several months in the parking lot of Minsk National Airport. And in September 2021, it took part in drills on search and rescue support of flights at Minsk airport – the plane was extinguished and evacuated in training.
A month later, it became known that Belavia put the EW-250PA up for auction. The starting price was BYN 2.9 million (~$1.2 million at the exchange rate at the time).
EW-250PA auction page / ipmtorgi.by
The lot also included a Model GTCP85-129H auxiliary power unit and two CFM56-3C1 engines, and the seller noted that the performance of the engines, assemblies and units had not been verified, and that instrumental inspection, diagnosis and disassembly could reveal latent defects.
«Belarusian spotters hope until the end that the plane will not find a new buyer and will be transferred to the aviation museum in Lipki,» the AviaticA channel wrote at the time.
The auction to sell the plane took place on November 8, 2021, and was completed in just 12 minutes with the victory of the only bidder who purchased it for nearly BYN 3.1 million ($1.264 million). The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
EW-250PA auction results / ipmtorgi.by
A 1.5 year break and airborne radar bugs
Since the sale in 2021, nothing happened to the plane at all. For the next 16 months it stood in the parking lot of Minsk National Airport, but everything changed on March 26, 2023.
On that day, the plane received a new registration number – EP-CPF, which indicated that it belonged to Iranian Caspian Airlines. On March 26 at 15:11, the plane took off from Minsk National Airport, and then probably the strangest things in the history of our observations began.
We recall that two days before the departure of EP-CPF (EW-250PA) from Belarus, a plane from Lukashenka’s fleet – Boeing 737-800 with registration number EW-001PA – came under the U.S. sanctions. The ICAO HEX codes of the Boeing sold to Belavia and Lukashenka’s plane differed by only one last character: 51002A – EW-250PA (Belavia) and 51002B – EW-001PA (Lukashenka’s plane). Apparently, this was one of the reasons why at the moment of takeoff of EP-CPF (EW-250PA) from Minsk National Airport, public flight tracking services identified this plane as Lukashenka’s one, and the flight number was assigned to it – CPN2703.
Departure of EP-CPF (former EW-250PA) from MSQ, the plane was identified as EW-001PA
Further, already flying over Kazakhstan, other public online radars began to identify it as a Boeing with reg. number HZ-ARA from Saudi Arabia due to the fact that the aircraft was flying with the ICAO code of this country, which, of course, could not be the case, as the Saudi Boeing HZ-ARA at those minutes just arrived in Riyadh from Kuala Lumpur. Note that the flight number is the same – CPN2703, but it already shows where exactly this plane is flying to.
CPN2703 flight, 26.03.2023 / Flightradar24
This flight was displayed so strangely on all the online radars that one of them even showed the flight track as some kind of “wind rose”.
CPN2703 flight track, 26.03.2023
Despite all the bugs, even then it was possible to track where exactly this plane arrived. It landed in Iran at 19:48 (Minsk time) at Tehran Mehrabad, the airport for domestic flights of the Iranian Air Force and government flights of this country. At that time, we mistakenly assumed that the flight under a different call sign and landing at an ‘unusual’ airport in Iran could indicate that Lukashenka’s plane flew to Iran, but later it turned out that it was the very first foreign plane of Belavia.
The plane was sold to Iran – now it's confirmed
We managed to establish the fact that the first imported plane of Belavia flew to Iran a couple of days later. You can read more about it in this article. It was impossible to say for sure whether it was sold to Iran back then, but now we can.
After its arrival in Iran, there was no news about EP-CPF (former EW-250PA) for the next 1.5 years, but on August 21, 2024 the plane received a new reg. number – EP-KPC, which again indicates its belonging to Iranian Caspian Airlines.
The new registration number of the former EW-250PA is EP-KPC dated 08.21.2024
The next day, Iranian media published the news that 18 months after arriving in the country, Caspian Airlines is introducing a Boeing B737-500 (reg. number EP-KPC) into the fleet, and published the first photo of the plane in its new livery.
News in Iranian media about the commissioning of EP-KPC and a new photo of the plane
The news also explains that over the past 18 months, the plane has undergone a major repair, has had equipment upgrades and has been repainted.
«The successful and trouble-free plane through the efforts of the company’s experienced specialists and engineers is now ready for flights and will soon be used on various domestic and international routes,» Caspian Airlines wrote.
And here is the first photo of the takeoff of the former Belavia aircraft on August 21, 2024 from the airport for domestic flights of the Iranian Air Force and government flights – Tehran Mehrabad, where the aircraft was stationed for the last 1.5 years.
Takeoff of EP-KPC (former EW-250PA), 21.08.2024 / Jetphotos
Everything indicates that 2.5 years ago, the very first imported plane of Belavia was sold directly to the sanctioned Iranian Caspian Airlines. Belavia itself put it up for auction, but the buyer was not disclosed. It’s unknown whether there were any intermediaries in the sale or not. But it is known for sure that the final buyer and recipient of this plane is Caspian Airlines, it has been confirmed and all the key stages of this sale, which lasted almost 3 years, have been established.
We also recall that we regularly tell about the resale of passenger aircraft to Iran and Syria transiting through Belarus, and even through Lithuania to Iran. And now, finally, the sale directly from Belarus has been revealed, amid which the country’s intermediary services do not look so unusual anymore. It’s just a conscious sanctioned business.
