TYB
"What a beautiful black sky"
BBS
Bulletin Board Service
The plot thickens.
PF has been following private jets. Usually just zoom my map out to include the entire CONUS and then sort my list by altitude. The highest fliers, other than weather balloons, are usually these elite private jets. In the old days I just called them Lear Jets. But today the reality is that you will Bombardiers, Cessna Citations, Gulfstreams, etc.
So I did the usual thing today and check the top of the list. Then I take the tail number and start digging. This afternoon, in first place, we have tail number N780XJ at 45,950 feet. Up out of San Diego International and currently entering New Mexico airspace on a ENE course. A Cessna 750 Citation. This is the second time that I have found one showing Bank of Utah Trustee as the owner. The first time that I have dug on that owner name though. What I found is a cornucopia of questions with few answers. It would seem that arranging private jet ownership in this fashion really does a great job of hiding the owner's identity. As witnessed by these articles found online. Posting here a few links. And part of an article that really made my eyes pop out due to the Iran connection.
But first, documentation of ownership and destination.
Summary 2007 CESSNA 750
Fixed wing multi engine
(12 seats / 2 engines)
Owner BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE
SALT LAKE CITY , UT, US
(Corporation)
10-Dec-2018 BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE SALT LAKE CITY UT
06-Dec-2018 XOJET AVIATION LLC NEW YORK NY <deserves a dig of it's own
28-May-2011 XOJET INC NEW YORK NY <deserves a dig of it's own
25-Jul-2008 XOJET INC NEW CASTLE DE <deserves a dig of it's own
https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N780XJ
Oddly no dont track order with Flight Aware. Destination Teterboro, NJ. ETA 7:24 pm EDT.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N780XJ
What the hell is this American plane owned by the Bank of Utah doing in IRAN?
ERIC OWENS EDITOR April 18, 2014 9:02 AM ET
On Tuesday morning, a plane owned in trust by the Bank of Utah showed up in a very visible area of the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
What was it doing there exactly? Nobody knows, reports The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/middleeast/mystery-shrouds-american-plane-at-tehran-airport.html
Under President Barack Obama, the United States has eased some of the long-standing punitive economic sanctions against Iran. Still, very little American — or European — economic activity is allowed inside the religious theocracy.
The Bank of Utah is certainly no Wells Fargo. The Ogden-based community bank has all of 13 branches including three in Ogden, two in Salt Lake City and one in Trementon (pop. 7,647). Its humble motto is: “Experience. Service.”
The bank’s senior officials say they are baffled.
“We have no idea why that plane was at that airport,” Brett King, a Bank of Utah executive in Salt Lake City, told the Times.
“As fiduciary, we must keep information confidential when it comes to the beneficiary,” he added.
King also called the Bank of Utah “very conservative” and promised to get to the bottom of the situation “if there is any hint of illegal activity.”
The bank executive explained that his employer is only a trustee for the unidentified investors (possibly foreign investors) who actually own the aircraft (N-Number N604EP). Interestingly, the Bank of Utah acts as a trustee for a slew of planes—1,169 of them to be exact, everything from Boeing 747s to small, piston-powered Cessnas. In fact, not many American banks act as a trustee for more American aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration offered no help whatsoever concerning the mysterious jet parked in broad daylight at the busiest airport in Iran (over 13 million passengers in 2010).
Similarly, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the vast array of sanctions against Iran, refused to comment. However, under federal law, the department is normally supposed to approve the presence of any American airplane on Iranian soil. Such approval would be especially important in this case because the plane is powered by engines manufactured by General Electric.
https://dailycaller.com/2014/04/18/what-the-hell-is-this-american-plane-owned-by-the-bank-of-utah-doing-in-iran/
https://prijet.com/owner/BANK%20OF%20UTAH%20TRUSTEE
https://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/are-aircraft-hiding-on-us-registry
https://www.deseret.com/2017/11/10/20622849/in-our-opinion-local-bank-sparks-scrutiny-of-u-s-aircraft-trust-policies