HZ135

Cessna 550 Citation Bravo

Saudi Arabia

A078D0

Passenger - Operations - Military

23 November 2020

10:28

Origin : ATH

Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos

ATH

LGAV

Athens

Attica

Greece

Elevation : 94m / 308ft

Coordinates : 38°55′11″N 24°56′40″E

Destination : ZRH

Zurich Airport

ZRH

LSZH

Zurich

Canton of Zurich

Switzerland

Elevation : 432m / 1416ft

Coordinates : 47°27′53″N 9°32′57″E

Comment

Could be an ambulance but interesting for another reason also : a typical data error that can cause strange confusion or flights to be 'hidden'. This used to be N12993 -- registered in America -- but the FAA data no longer contains any data on this aircraft so the type etc is unknown and the mode-S code is wrong. So it is shown with it's old registration and mode-S -- which is still used in ADS-B transmissions. This is how some aircraft become 'hidden' and their flights obfuscated. This can be an honest mistake by the operator or in the data as well as laziness or by design on the part of the operator. Once N12993 is 'washed' out of the FAA data and the aircraft continues to sent this data tracking APIs will likely drop it as unknown/nonsense data and the aircraft and its movements will become effectively invisible.

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