Watch out for flight tracking images showing Chinese cargo planes landing in Iran
Since June 12, and the start of the war between Israel and Iran, many Internet users have been claiming that China is secretly supporting Iran militarily, based on images from Flightradar24, a website that enables live tracking of aircraft in flight.
On Monday, a pro-Iranian account on X called SilencedSirs claimed that 'two giant cargo planes flying from China to Iran turned off their tracking signals before entering Iranian airspace".
According to SilencedSirs, the proof is two-fold: a video shared in a post viewed over six million times made by a supposed media outlet called Prime Scope, and a screenshot of an aircraft's route tracked by Flightradar24, purporting to show one of the planes in Iranian airspace.
Since Friday, many Internet users have also been sharing other Flightradar24 images purporting to show several flights from China entering Iran.
Screenshots shared online of the air traffic monitoring site show that various flights operated by Luxembourg cargo airline Cargolux on June 14, 15 and 16 arrived in Iran.
'China sends the first military aid to Iran – unknown cargo,' said a user on X on the night of June 14-15, with a screenshot showing a Cargolux plane supposedly flying over Iran. The same thing happened on June 16, with another flight allegedly showing a 'Chinese cargo plane arriving in Iran' (see below).
A video of highly dubious origin
However, so far, none of the Flightradar24 screenshots posted online since Friday show any aircraft heading for Iran.
In fact, the flight number ' MNB1925 ' visible in the image broadcast in the now viral video corresponds to the Turkish company MNG Airlines, as can be traced from Flightradar24. A search using the name of this flight on the site reveals that no flight under this acronym has crossed Iran since Friday. Only one flight – the one used in the video – passed north of Iran from Turkmenistan. The map used in the video adds to the confusion because it doesn't show borders.
The video's origin is also highly dubious: our editors could find no trace online of a media outlet called Prime Scope, which defined itself at the end of the video as "unfiltered and unbiased".
Images that do not show these planes in Iran
But what about the other images of planes that appear to be flying over Iran? Three flights in particular have been scrutinised by Internet users: flights CLX9735, CLX9736, and CLX9737. Operated by Cargolux, all three departed from China. For each of these flights, screenshots (like the one below) show a plane flying over Iranian territory after passing through Turkmenistan, to the northeast of Iran.
But in reality, the visuals used for each of these flights do not show real trajectories, but only 'estimated' trajectories by Flightradar24, which do not correspond to the paths actually taken by the planes.
When contacted by the FRANCE 24 team, the Flightradar24 website explained that the aircraft icons that appear to be flying over Iran are in fact only 'estimation data' shown 'when a user clicks on a flight", to give an indication of the direction in which the aircraft should be heading. 'Estimated positions are noted by the black trail colour,' Ian Petchenik, the company's communications director, told our editors.
This explanation was also given on the Flightradar24 Facebook page on Sunday, recalling that this type of estimate can last 'up to 240 minutes' after the signal is lost.
In a statement published on its website and Facebook page on Sunday, Luxembourg-based Cargolux said that 'none of its flights utilise Iranian airspace". 'Our flight tracking systems provide real-time data, which confirms that no flight entered Iranian airspace. Any claims to the contrary are completely unfounded,' the company also stated, criticising 'incorrect data' from public tools, without naming Flightradar24 directly.
Since Friday, an information bulletin from the European Union's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recommended airlines 'not to operate' in Iranian airspace (as well as in the airspace of countries in the path of the missiles) and 'at all flight levels'.
'Because the schedule we receive from Cargolux indicates the flight is operating to Luxembourg, we continue to estimate the flight's last known altitude, speed, and heading, which unfortunately puts the aircraft's path through Iran during a period of estimated coverage,' Petchenik explained, who also confirmed that none of these aircraft flew over Iran.
China opposed Israeli attacks on Iran
These false claims are circulating at a time when China has explicitly condemned Israel's attacks on Iran. "Israel's military actions against Iran have led to a sudden escalation of tensions in the Middle East, which deeply concerns China. We oppose any action that undermines the sovereignty of other countries," said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday at a meeting in Kazakhstan with five Central Asian countries.
On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had already expressed his dissatisfaction to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, explaining that "the international community is still seeking a political solution to the Iranian nuclear issue". He had previously called Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to express China's support.
China is not only a major diplomatic ally for Iran, but also an important economic partner since 90% of Iranian crude oil is exported to China.
A stopover in Turkmenistan for 'refuelling'
If flight CLX9737's destination was Turkmenistan, what about flights CLX9735 and CLX9736? Both are supposed to be direct flights between China and Luxembourg, but their tracking seemed to stop in the middle of Turkmenistan, according to their flight history available on the Flightradar24 website.
When asked about this, Flightradar24 told our team that the partial route was due to a lack of information on the stopovers of Cargolux flights, which regularly stop off in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, on the route between China and Luxembourg.
'Cargolux knows that its planes will stop in Ashgabat to refuel, but this stop is not indicated in the available information,' explained Petchenik. Hence the impression, when consulting Flightradar24, that these journeys ended in Turkmenistan, when their destination was in fact Luxembourg.
Another air traffic monitoring site, FlightAware, showed that both flights were completed in two stages. On this website, the planes can be traced back some four hours after their stopover in Ashgabat. On both occasions, they were found on the western border of Turkmenistan, en route to Luxembourg, without passing through Iran.
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