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Tracking the mystery path of a high-end jet now parked in Dominica

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 6/4/2021 6:48:14 AM

New Delhi, June 3 In the world of private aviation, it's a trophy coveted by high-powered executives, investors, and celebrities. A Bombardier Global 5000 operated by Qatar Executive, a subsidiary of Qatar Airways, arrived at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on May 27 from Doha. The high-end aircraft took off from the Indian capital and landed at Dominica's Douglas-Charles Airport on May 28, days after fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi was arrested in the Caribbean island nation for illegal entry. Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne linked the jet's arrival in Dominica to the Choksi case. "I can confirm that there is a jet there. My understanding is that Indian government has sent certain documentation from the courts in India to confirm that Mr Choksi is indeed a fugitive," he told a local radio station. Indian authorities haven't yet commented on Browne's claims. That said, commercially obtained flight data suggests that the plane's rendezvous with Dominica at a time when the Choksi repatriation efforts are under way isn't its first with an event of that scale. Now parked at Douglas-Charles, that Qatari Bombardier Global 5000 has had an uncanny knack of being in proximity to key global happenings recently. The plane's historical data reviewed by India Today TV shows that the jet landed at Male on May 8, two days after former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was critically injured in a bomb explosion there. Data obtained from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, confirms that the same aircraft was in Kathmandu on May 11, a day after Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli lost the trust vote. The globetrotting jet is next seen in Moscow between May 11-13, an itinerary that coincided with the Russian visit of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres. Between May 21 and May 25, the plane was spotted in Geneva. That was when the Swiss city hosted the first high-level meeting between the national security advisers of the Biden administration and the Pakistani government, and, separately, a virtual session of the WHO's decision-making World Health Assembly. This Global 5000 belongs to the family of iconic ultra-long range class aircraft offering one of the most spacious cabins among super-large business jets.