A Boeing 747 cargo plane that flies from Belgium in and out of Israel’s wartime airspace is carrying mostly fish, not weapons, the Israeli airline says, while no one in Belgium cares to check.
A regular Challenge Airlines flight 5C900 took off from Liège airport in Belgium on Monday (23 June) at 12.45PM and was due to land in Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv at 18.10PM, according to a flight tracker website.
Israeli airspace is closed to normal air traffic due to the war with Iran.
But the next Challenge Airlines flights to Ben Gurion are due to take off on 27 June and 30 June anyway, in a thrice-weekly routine.
Challenge Airlines is an Israeli “special cargo” firm, licensed to carry weapons, which has its hub in Liège and which employs 850 people.
It shipped 70 tonnes of ammunition, explosives, and arms components from Liège to Israel between October 2023 and March 2024, according to a previous investigation by Belgian media.
And its CEO, Yossi Shoukroun, confirmed to Belgium’s Humo magazine and to EUobserver, in a joint investigation, that it still shipped arms today, only “not via Belgium”.
Andrew Rettman