By Jamie Freed
(Reuters) – A Boeing 747-8 freighter that BOC Aviation Ltd leased to Russia’s AirBridgeCargo has flown from Hong Kong to California, according to FlightRadar24, after a U.S. judge signed an order allowing the lessor to repossess the plane.
The order was unsealed and made public on Tuesday, according to court documents. The aircraft arrived in the United States on March 25, the flight tracking service shows.
BOC Aviation declined to comment and its lawyers did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Singapore-based BOC Aviation is one of many global aircraft lessors that had planes on lease to Russian airlines before sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine forced the cancellation of leases and insurance policies.
More than 400 leased planes worth almost $10 billion remain in Russia despite a Monday deadline for contract cancellations, though Interfax news agency last week reported 78 were seized abroad.
BOC Aviation on March 10 said its 18 planes leased to Russian airlines had a book value of $935 million and could be affected by insurance policy cancellations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In court documents filed on March 14, the lessor sought orders for one of three 747-8 freighters on lease to AirBridgeCargo that was in Hong Kong to be repossessed and flown to the United States for storage.
BOC Aviation said that the plane was worth $148 million and that AirBridgeCargo had breached leases for two other 747-8s when it flew the planes, which were in mainland China, back to Russia despite the lessor’s explicit instructions to ground them on March 5 after insurance coverage was cancelled.
One of the planes returned to Russia even after its airworthiness certificate was suspended by Bermuda, the location of registry, BOC Aviation said.
Those two freighters remain in Russia, according to FlightRadar24 data.
Volga-Dnepr Group, the owner of AirBridgeCargo, said on March 18 it had grounded the subsidiary’s fleet of Boeing planes because of Western sanctions, according to media reports. Volga-Dnepr did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney; additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)