Some details about the flight and the aircraft that brought Cecilia Sala home

Journalist Cecilia Sala, arrested on December 19 for allegedly “violating the laws” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has been released and this afternoon is landed in Rome.

The aircraft used for the flight was a Dassault Falcon 900EX with the registration I-TWOW. These registration details are “new,” or at least no references to them can be found online. From the (few) photos of the aircraft taken at Ciampino, it appears that the registration is indeed new. It seems to have been applied on a background that is noticeably lighter than the rest of the aircraft’s fuselage.

The aircraft does not appear in any public database but is believed to be operated by Compagnia Aeronautica Italiana, the airline associated with Italian intelligence services.

At this point, we cannot rule out the authenticity of the ICAO code (30098B), but we cannot confirm it either. What is certain is that the aircraft’s flight plan, which took off from Naples this morning at 6 a.m., was incorrect. From Tehran, the plan listed Naples as the destination, while the aircraft, as we know, landed at Rome Ciampino Airport.

These are just some of the intriguing details in a story that, in any case, ended positively with the safe return of the Italian journalist.