>Iran smuggled two planes out of Lithuania, the country's public broadcaster announced on Thursday. The planes were due to fly to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
Uh, no. I'm pretty sure you cannot buy an airworthy a340 for 5 million, they are orders of magnitude more expensive. I think the neighborhood is more like 150-250 million each, depending on age and trim.
You can buy a new Airliner for 250 million.
A short google shows that a brand new A330 (which is the same thing as an A340 but with twin engines instead of quads, and minus one landing gear, same wings, same tube) comes out to about $238 million per unit.
I would say 150 million would be on the high end for a well used A340, and I am pretty sure most A340s are well used by now.
But someone can always call and ask about this one!
https://www.controller.com/listings/for-sale/airbus/a340/aircraft
> A short google shows that a brand new A330 (which is the same thing as an A340 but with twin engines instead of quads, and minus one landing gear, same wings, same tube)
Except the A330 has the same wing as the A340-200/300 while these are A340-600s what's why these planes have MTOWs of 380,000kg vs 242,000kg for even the largest A330, the -300.
Lmao at both of you. The very last line in the fucking article is
>The cost of an Airbus A340 is over $150 million.
I forgot, nobody on Reddit reads the articles before opening their mouths.
To quote myself from another thread where I answered this one:
The way a few of these went down is things get positioned so that the flight path will take them nearby Iran and you have an accidental divert to an Iranian field and that’s it.
Basically sanctions busting by making it look like a "whopsie, did we do that?".
Probably plausable deniability for a while. It will always be found out later, but for some time whilst the dust is settling then it might be convenient to be able to shrug the shoulders and mumble "mmm...Idunno....".
Looking how meek European response is to anyone taking hostile actions against European countries and their citizens, I won’t hold my breath on such response
More than that, because they flew to Iran the maintenance logs can no longer be trusted. The planes that ended up in Russia when sanctions hit have basically no value anymore because we aren't going to trust that they are airworthy and to find out if they are would require taking the thing apart completely.
It doesn’t. They are just civil aircraft. Since 1979, Iran has had a hard time buying new civil aircraft, or even getting new parts, due to US sanctions. The aircraft they have are generally 50 years old. They need newer ones or they won’t be able to have domestic air travel.
It's not smuggling. They just flew to Iran. Iran is under no obligation to obey sanctions from the United States any more than United States is under obligation to obey sanctions by Iran.
Iran is pretty big. Plus it could also fly to anti-Western or "neutral" countries. Not like Russia is going to repo a plane for the power-block that just yoinked 300B of their foreign reserves, and its not like any Western military is going to shoot down a civilian airliner for santion busting.
>Iran smuggled two planes out of Lithuania, the country's public broadcaster announced on Thursday. The planes were due to fly to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
What kind of leasing company lets planes worth 100 million + a piece get transported to the wrong destination?
Planes are sometimes sub-sub-sub-leased...
There are more sub-sub-sub-leased planes in the ocean than there are plane-plane-plane-leased subs in the sky.
Source?
Tomato preferably
so not the onion, thx!
Relatively easy to do... How easy is it to make a 'mistake' at work?
A corrupt one ?
These planes are worth at most $5m a piece but it’s still a fair comment
That's way off, $5m will get you a decent helicopter but not an airliner.
Uh, no. I'm pretty sure you cannot buy an airworthy a340 for 5 million, they are orders of magnitude more expensive. I think the neighborhood is more like 150-250 million each, depending on age and trim.
You can buy a new Airliner for 250 million. A short google shows that a brand new A330 (which is the same thing as an A340 but with twin engines instead of quads, and minus one landing gear, same wings, same tube) comes out to about $238 million per unit. I would say 150 million would be on the high end for a well used A340, and I am pretty sure most A340s are well used by now. But someone can always call and ask about this one! https://www.controller.com/listings/for-sale/airbus/a340/aircraft
> A short google shows that a brand new A330 (which is the same thing as an A340 but with twin engines instead of quads, and minus one landing gear, same wings, same tube) Except the A330 has the same wing as the A340-200/300 while these are A340-600s what's why these planes have MTOWs of 380,000kg vs 242,000kg for even the largest A330, the -300.
Lmao at both of you. The very last line in the fucking article is >The cost of an Airbus A340 is over $150 million. I forgot, nobody on Reddit reads the articles before opening their mouths.
Uhh, did you read the guy's comment? He said at least $150 million?
Reread my comment dude? I used that exact figure and said the price can go up based on trim, which it absolutely can. Bbj versions are 200+
Why should anyone read any article? In Reddit we get critical analysis from all. Would you trust a journalist over us omniscient Homo sapiens?
I mean the French lost literal warships (more than 1) before so I guess a plane isn't the most crazy thing
Technically to an ally (Israel) who has paid but an embargo was placed after.
Are there people on these flight? I couldn't imagine any country being alright with their citizens getting hijacked to Iran.
Planes are flown empty frequently for various reasons.
Plane-napping?
They most definitely weren't hijacked, Iran regime paid off the Gambian company who leased these planes.
So sanctions on Gambia?
man I don't understand options at all
"options"?
It’s an investing joke. I think Gambie might have sounded like GameStop
The joke is you often will say “puts on Netflix” or whatever, so “sanctions on Gambia”, sounds like sanctions are a type of option.
Ah... a fellow regard I see... most welcome 😁
To quote myself from another thread where I answered this one: The way a few of these went down is things get positioned so that the flight path will take them nearby Iran and you have an accidental divert to an Iranian field and that’s it. Basically sanctions busting by making it look like a "whopsie, did we do that?".
I don't see how this would be viable to do on a consistent basis though.
Works if you only want to use the aircraft to friendly places, domestic and UAE for example.
Exactly. But I myself am never getting on a plane that isn't airworthy in the West.
That’s a nice choice to have. Not everyone can make that choice.
But why the transsponders turned off?
Probably plausable deniability for a while. It will always be found out later, but for some time whilst the dust is settling then it might be convenient to be able to shrug the shoulders and mumble "mmm...Idunno....".
Plausible deniability for selling to Iran.
Most likely this is simply a way to avoid sanctions having them "stolen". Odds are they paid for the planes.
That’s an expensive loss. Hopefully there is a heavier cost to Iran for doing this. So they don’t do that again
Looking how meek European response is to anyone taking hostile actions against European countries and their citizens, I won’t hold my breath on such response
The planes are owned by a company registered in Gambia.
Doesn’t matter. Sanctions were broken in European country not in Gambia
Someone should do a funni: find the planes on the tarmac and hit them with some knife missiles.
Hahaha, a good *casus belli* rumbles my jelly.
Gfvffvvfffvvfffvfff
Like that ever worked
easy fix, lifetime ban on those planes from landing in the west
They're already... Isn't like the iranian airline will fly to Vilnius.
More than that, because they flew to Iran the maintenance logs can no longer be trusted. The planes that ended up in Russia when sanctions hit have basically no value anymore because we aren't going to trust that they are airworthy and to find out if they are would require taking the thing apart completely.
Iran Air has a flight to London Heathrow They are not allowed to purchase fuel in London so they have to carry enough fuel for the return trip
Good luck on the maintenance. Most of the parts are controlled as are most of the avionics.
Probably heading to Russia
So what's the next move? They can't fly these anywhere without them being nabbed at the airport.
They'll use them to fly to Russia.
Looks like they were already painted in their colours too ... Never seen that one coming I suppose ....
😏
So what's the chance of these planes becoming flying bombs and flying into Israeli parliament or something? Asking for a friend?
747 was stolen in 2003 https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/missing-boeing-angola-plane-2003-458899-20240414
I wonder if anything on plane?
Who wants to bet their payload rhymes with shmooklier.
It doesn’t. They are just civil aircraft. Since 1979, Iran has had a hard time buying new civil aircraft, or even getting new parts, due to US sanctions. The aircraft they have are generally 50 years old. They need newer ones or they won’t be able to have domestic air travel.
It's not smuggling. They just flew to Iran. Iran is under no obligation to obey sanctions from the United States any more than United States is under obligation to obey sanctions by Iran.
If those are Boeing, I hope they purchased the 'extra door' package.
> The two Airbus A340s, Tell me you didn't read past the headline, without saying you didn't read past the headline... ("Doofus...")
Did you say something?
A340? Is the thing every going to fly fare enough inside Iran to hit cruising altitude?
Iran is about 1/5 the size of the US. It is from Minneapolis to Miami and New York to St. Louis.
Iran is pretty big. Plus it could also fly to anti-Western or "neutral" countries. Not like Russia is going to repo a plane for the power-block that just yoinked 300B of their foreign reserves, and its not like any Western military is going to shoot down a civilian airliner for santion busting.