A second airline this year transported explosives through Irish sovereign airspace between Israel and the US – with this air company shipping the munitions on behalf of the Israeli government.
Over the past three weeks The Ditch has reported that Challenge Airlines illegally brought 57 tonnes of munitions on eight flights overflying Ireland from October 2023 to March 2024.
The Ditch can now reveal that a separate airline, Silk West Way Airlines, also brought explosive devices over Ireland after Israel struck a deal to sell surplus fighter jets to a US defence contractor.
The airline brought explosive cartridges for these jets from Israel to the USA in April this year, passing through Irish sovereign airspace on its way.
Flights carrying munitions require clearance from the Department of Transport. The department previously told The Ditch, "Air operators from Ireland, the UK, the EU and the US" have received this clearance in the period concerned. It wouldn't confirm whether this airline, headquartered in Azerbaijan, had either applied for or received clearance.
‘Entering over Courtown in county Wexford before exiting above county Galway’
On 17 April 2024, a Silk Way West Airlines flight heading for Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Azerbaijan left Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
It was carrying a cargo of explosive-laden cartridge power devices for use in F-16 fighter jets.
From Azerbaijan the plane flew to Frankfurt Airport, Germany on another Silk Way West Airlines aircraft. On 20 April, 2024 it left Frankfurt with the explosive devices and arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport later that day.
As it flew from Germany to the US, with the munitions onboard, the plane travelled through Irish airspace – entering over Courtown in county Wexford before exiting above county Galway.
The cartridge devices were declared as class one explosive-containing dangerous goods on shipping documents obtained by The Ditch. The Israeli Ministry of Defence was listed as the shipper and Top Aces in Arizona as the consignee.
The Ditch has established that rocket motors and detonating fuzes were also due to be shipped to Top Aces on the same flight but it remains unclear whether this delivery was completed.
Top Aces in January this year received the first four of 29 F-16 fighter jets it agreed to buy from the Israeli government. The US, Germany and Canada have contracted the company to train its air forces.
Silk Way West Airlines – which declined to comment – was exposed last year for transporting billions of dollars worth of Israeli weapons from Israel to Azerbaijan for use in the Nagorno-Karabakh War with Armenia.
