Recently fell down the rabbit hole of looking in to the Iraqi govs fleet of Falcon 50s. I thought I'd put together a write up for those interested, and maybe encourage some discussion from people who know any other details. This includes the very interesting history of YI-ALE, the Exocet carrying biz jet which reportedly attacked USS Stark in 1987.
Iraq ordered 5 jets, registering 4 to the Iraqi government and another in Switzerland (more on that later).
YI-ALB, S/N 71, (F-WZHF,YI-ALB,J2-KBA,N352WB)
Delivered in March 1982 painted in full Iraqi airways colours. Later given as a gift to the government of Djibouti before the the Gulf War.
Still active as N352WB in the USA.
Image: Reinhard Zinabold, Flickr.
Image: T.Laurent
YI-ALC, S/N 101, F-WPXH,YI-ALC,5-9012,EP-TFA
Delivered Nov 82. Flew to Iran just before the Gulf War, first registered as 5-9012, then as EP-TFA.
Image: Peter Smithson,
Image: Jeremy Denton
YI-ALD, S/N 120, F-WPXJ,YI-ALD,5-9011,EP-TFI,
Delivered Oct 83, to Iran before the Gulf War as 5-9011, later EP-TFI.
Image: Kevin Colbran,
Image: Sadra Mosalla
YI-ALE , S/N 122 F-WZHG,YI-ALE,5-9013
Nicknamed 'Suzanna', Delivered May 83, Attack on USS Stark 1987, to Iran just before the Gulf War as 5-9013.
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There has been a fair bit written online about the attack on the USS Stark by YI-ALE, so I won't go in to detail. There is a good write up here along with many other places.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...-frigate-66772
In short, the French secretly modified YI-ALE with a Mirage nose cone and weapons systems, including two Exocet missiles. Very few pictures of ALE in this configuration exist (I believe the image in the magazine above is a photoshop). The cockpit of
ALE a similarly modified Falcon 20 with Mirage systems has been
posted before on pprune in the 'Guess the Cockpit' thread.
EDIT: As pointed out, cockpit is of a FA20, not ALE.
This aircraft was also sent to Iran before the Gulf War but, unlike ALC and ALD, I cannot find any images of ALE operating in Iran as 9013. If anyone can shed light on the current state of this historic aircraft it would be great.
Now, back to that Swiss registered falcon...
HB-IES , S/N 061, then VP-CRF.
Serial number 061 was the first Falcon 50 delivered in December 81, but registered in Switzerland to the Iraqi front company 'Logarcheo'. Capt.
Rizal then delivered 061 to Baghdad on January 15, 1982. As you can see, she wore the same basic livery as the other Falcons.
Image: Kevin Colbran, Image: Patrice Tappa
The aircraft was flown to Amman before the Gulf War, and remained there until 1994 when it was flown to Basel for maintenance, and then put back in to service with the Iraqi government. More info on the history of HB-IES can be found in
this leaked diplomatic cable. It seems to suggest there was a dispute on the legal ownership of the aircraft after the Iraq war. It is now flying on a Bermuda registration, operated by 'Ocean Waves Ltd'.
So in all, 3 of the 5 Iraqi Falcons went to Iran before the Gulf War (and much like the rest of the Iraqi air force fleet, they never returned). The other two are now in private hands and still flying.
A pretty interesting history for a small fleet of bizjets I think.