The Controversial Boeing Made A Series Of Mysterious Flights Through Belarus And Russia

It belongs to Iran.

An Iranian Boeing 747-281F cargo plane with tail number EP-FAB, owned by Fars Air Qeshm, was recorded as having arrived in Minsk. The aircraft had been in the Belarusian capital since August 26 and made several flights over the course of two days.

The aircraft’s exact coordinates were temporarily unavailable due to a lack of data. This is reported in an analysis by the publication “Military”.

A Strange Route Over Russia

An Iranian heavy cargo plane arrived in Belarus under flight code QFZ9962. The next day, August 27, the plane took off from Minsk Airport and was in the air for about five hours. The route passed through the airspace of the Russian Federation, after which the aircraft returned to the Belarusian capital.

On certain sections of the route, the AirNav Radar service displayed the flight path as a dotted line. This notation indicates that the aircraft’s exact coordinates were temporarily not being tracked.

On the morning of August 28, the Iranian aircraft took off from Minsk again, heading for Tehran. At 2:43 p.m., the aircraft successfully landed in the Iranian capital. Thus, over the course of several days, the Iranian Boeing completed a round-trip flight from Tehran to Minsk and back to Tehran, with intermediate maneuvers over Russian territory.

The aircraft is subject to strict U.S. sanctions

The Boeing 747-281F with serial number 25171 has a questionable reputation. On January 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added Fars Air Qeshm and two of its aircraft, including the EP-FAB, to its sanctions lists.

According to U.S. authorities, the carrier was regularly used to transport military and special cargo on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, particularly to Syria.

Previously, this aircraft had been spotted on multiple occasions flying routes from Iran to Damascus and Beirut. Foreign and Israeli analysts have linked these flights to the logistics of weapons and components for groups controlled by Tehran.

In addition, the aircraft has been spotted flying to Africa. In 2024, Reuters reported that Iranian cargo aircraft were used to deliver attack drones and military equipment to Sudan.

Although open-data services allow for detailed tracking of the aircraft’s movements, there is no information about the contents of its cargo hold. The exact nature of the cargo delivered to Minsk and transported during flights over Russia remains unknown.

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