The mystery surrounding the ownership of a Boeing 717-100 cargo plane impounded at Harare’s airport deepened on Tuesday with various reports citing different sources contradicting each other.
The aircraft, a Boeing 727-100 that once belonged to the United States Air Force, bears the registration number N4610, which the US Federal Aviation Authority says is allocated to a Kansas-based company called Dodson Aviation Inc.
The company alleges it sold the plane to a company called Logo Ltd, or Logo Logistics, but neither company is known to local aviation enthusiasts.
Jim Pippin, the acting manager for Dodson International, added that Logo took delivery of the plane over the weekend.
Asked why an internet search showed the plane still with a US registration in the name of Dodson, Pippin said: “They have not yet had time to do a re-registration.”
Aviation sources said the plane, which entered South Africa on Saturday, was still listed then as belonging to Dodson.
Dodson director Robert Dodson said new owners are entitled to use old registration numbers for six months after a sale.
Sources say the ill-fated plane, supposedly destined for Bujumbura, Burundi, departed South Africa from in front of a hangar belonging to Dodson’s International Parts (SA).
The Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday said it was investigating whether the plane left South African airspace illegally.
It was scheduled to fly from Wonderboom airport at Pretoria to Polokwane International airport and from there to Bujumbura, but apparently skipped landing in Polokwane. As planes are not allowed to cross the border from Wonderboom this would make its trip illegal.
Observers at the Wonderboom airport said the plane arrived at about 8am and departed at 4pm.
Shortly before it left a busload of black men reportedly boarded.
Although South African High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Jerry Ndou was due to meet Zimbabwean officials to discuss and investigate the incident on Tuesday it was not clear whether he had done so by 2pm.
There are allegations that among the 64 men on board were South Africans, which would put them in breach of South Africa’s Foreign Military Assistance Act.
The Act prohibits the involvement of South Africans in military activities outside South Africa without authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.
Reports on Tuesday said the plane could have been on its way to West Africa, headed for a threatening coup in Equatorial Guinea, a small, formerly Spanish colony wedged between Cameroon and Gabon. Its capital, Malabo, is on an island offshore Cameroon’s coast. Oil was recently discovered in its waters.
Another possible destination was the war-torn Côte d’Ivoire.
It was also speculated that the elderly cargo plane may have been forced to land in Harare because of a technical problem and that South African air traffic controllers may have informed Harare that the plane had entered their airspace from South Africa without permission from them to leave.
The Boeing is at present being detained at a Zimbabwean military air base after the Zimbabwean government and state media alleged it was found to be carrying mercenaries and military equipment.
State television bulletins, however, showed no sign of arms in the aircraft.
Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the plane had been detained in Harare on Sunday after its owners made a false declaration of its cargo and crew. He did not name the owners.
State television news showed a large plain white aircraft with a blue stripe along the side and bearing the registration N4610. Military police were shown going through piles of boots and colourful training shoes, blue kitbags, hand-held radios, satellite telephones, loud hailers, sleeping bags, bolt cutters, sledge hammers, a small pepper spray and a bright orange dinghy.
There was no sign of firearms, ammunition or explosives.
The passengers were described in the Zimbabwean state media as “all heavily built males”, most of whom were white.
Zimbabwe police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena on Tuesday said Mohadi would make a further statement later on Tuesday, or on Wednesday.
He confirmed a report by state media that the bomb disposal unit, which includes army personnel, was expected to complete searching the aircraft’s cargo sections during the course of the day.
“That is normal procedure,” he said. However, he remained tight-lipped over the identities and nationalities of the men. — Sapa
Mystery plane ‘left SA illegally’
Mercenaries on a mission