Reviewing the vexed topic of the Viktor Bout contracts with the US military…it strikes me that we can draw some parallels between reports. Doug Farah reported that one of the contracts was given to Jetline and subcontracted to Skylink (Farah). The original fuel contracts (to BGIA and Air Bas) make no mention of either Jetline or Skylink, however there is a third “TBTC” contract, TBTC01, for a firm called Sky Traffic Facilitators with an address in Sharjah. It seems likely that there is some connection with the other two. Now – if we consider that each of the fuel contracts matches one contractor and hence at least one contract – this suggests that at least 3 contracts exist. One involves British Gulf International Airlines, one Air Bas, and one Jetline/Skylink. Is it possible that Sky Traffic, a charter broker, were responsible for setting up this latter contract?
Another explanation would be that the Ilyushin 62 variously registered EL-ALM, 3C-QQR, or 5A-DKT, serial no. 4648414, which seems to have been used first (as EL-ALM) by Jetline and then transferred to Air Bas (as 3C-QQR), before returning to Jetline as 5A-DKT, was involved, and Jetline was acting as a front for Air Bas, a much more notorious operation. If the aircraft was transferred to AB, then it would have been AB buying fuel in the UAE – either in reality or because the aircraft had been operated by them all along.