By Breaking Belize News Staff: The Guatemalan military aircraft that Belize says entered its airspace and spent more than an hour operating near Lighthouse Reef was donated to Guatemala by the United States government and previously served in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-funded special-operations aviation programme whose PC-12 aircraft were used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Guatemalan Air Force FAG706, a Pilatus PC-12/47E, was transferred to Guatemala in 2024 for surveillance and light-transport duties, including security and border-control operations. Specialist defence reporting says the aircraft retained several pieces of equipment from its previous configuration, although the exact surveillance systems currently installed aboard it have not been publicly disclosed.
The aircraft’s history has become particularly significant as Belize and Guatemala now present completely contradictory accounts of what happened on the night of September 24.
Belize says its primary and secondary radar systems specifically identified FAG706 entering Belizean airspace at approximately 7:29 p.m., flying at around 4,000 feet, before repeatedly circling between Lighthouse Reef and an aviation waypoint known as KIRAP.
Guatemala says the overflight never happened.
Exercising its Right of Reply before the United Nations General Assembly on September 26, Guatemala “categorically” rejected Prime Minister John Briceño’s allegation that a Guatemalan Air Force aircraft had entered Belizean airspace.
“This overflight never occurred,” the Guatemalan delegation told the Assembly.
Guatemala went further, accusing Belize of going before the United Nations to “spread misinformation” and of using the dispute with Guatemala as an “instrument of domestic policy.” Guatemala also said it would request an investigation by the Organization of American States office in the Adjacency Zone and would make available its reports and “even the aircraft in question.”
The dispute therefore presents two irreconcilable accounts: Belize says it has radar evidence identifying the aircraft, its altitude, flight pattern, entry time and exit point, while Guatemala says the alleged overflight never occurred.
Belize says radar identified FAG706
According to Ministry of National Defence CEO Francis Usher, Belizean authorities reviewed data from the country’s primary and secondary radar systems following reports of a Guatemalan military aircraft operating near Belize.
Usher said the radar information specifically identified the aircraft as FAG706.
“We pulled the data from our primary and secondary radars that we have for the country, which are internationally recognized,” Usher explained.
According to Belize’s reconstruction, FAG706 entered Belizean airspace from the east at approximately 7:29 p.m. on September 24, flying at around 4,000 feet.
It then began circling near Lighthouse Reef and KIRAP.
“They circled in between the Lighthouse Reef and the aviation fix called KIRAP, and they began circling as if though they were looking for something,” Usher said.
At approximately 8:07 p.m., Belize says the aircraft disappeared from its secondary radar system, which Usher said indicated that its transponder had apparently been switched off.
But Belize says it continued tracking the physical aircraft through its primary radar, which does not depend on a transponder signal.
Usher said FAG706 remained inside Belizean airspace until approximately 8:40 p.m., when it departed to the south past the Sarstoon River.
That would place the aircraft inside Belizean airspace for approximately one hour and 10 minutes.
Guatemala says it never happened
Guatemala’s public position has become progressively stronger since reports of the incident first surfaced.
Its Ministry of National Defence initially issued a statement on September 25 saying that all activities and operations of the Guatemalan Army are conducted in strict accordance with national and international law.
The initial statement notably did not directly confirm or deny the alleged overflight and provided no operational explanation concerning FAG706. Guatemala’s state news agency reported that the statement did not provide details about the aircraft or the specific circumstances of the reported incident.
When Guatemalan newspaper La Hora subsequently asked the Defence Ministry directly whether the overflight had occurred, its communications office responded:
“We have no record of that alleged overflight.”
Guatemala then went significantly further at the United Nations following Briceño’s address.
It told the General Assembly that it “categorically” rejected Belize’s accusation and stated unequivocally that “this overflight never occurred.”
The Guatemalan representative said existing monitoring mechanisms through the OAS Adjacency Zone should be used to investigate the matter and said Guatemala would provide all its reports and even the aircraft itself.
Guatemala then accused Belize of using the international forum to “spread misinformation” and of using the territorial dispute as an “instrument of domestic policy.”
That language suggests Guatemala believes Belize is using what Guatemala considers a false allegation for internal political purposes, although Guatemala did not specifically accuse Belize of staging or fabricating radar evidence.
Not an ordinary transport aircraft
Regardless of the dispute over where it flew on September 24, FAG706 itself has a well-documented and specialized history.
The aircraft is a Pilatus PC-12/47E, construction number 1445, manufactured in 2013.
It was initially registered in Switzerland as HB-FQT, later became N445NX in the United States and eventually operated as YA1445 in Afghanistan.
Defence reporting says it formed part of a group of 18 PC-12 aircraft modified by Sierra Nevada Corporation under a US$218 million U.S. contract for the special-operations forces of the Afghan Air Force.
The Afghan Special Mission Wing’s PC-12 fleet was used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — ISR — missions, supporting special operations and security activities.
Following the collapse of the Afghan government, the aircraft eventually returned to U.S. control before being transferred to Guatemala.
By early 2024 it had become Guatemalan Air Force 706.
United States donated FAG706 to Guatemala
Available defence reporting indicates that Guatemala did not purchase FAG706 as an ordinary commercial aircraft acquisition.
It was donated by the Government of the United States.
Infodefensa reported in May 2024 that Guatemala had incorporated the PC-12/47E donated by Washington for surveillance and light-transport missions.
The aircraft was expected to be employed for security and border-control missions in Guatemalan territory and airspace.
Pucará Defensa similarly reported that FAG706 had been donated by the U.S. government and would be used for surveillance, security and border-control work. The publication reported that the aircraft retained several pieces of its original equipment.
Exactly what that equipment includes remains unknown.
There is no publicly available inventory establishing which cameras, infrared sensors, communications equipment or other intelligence and surveillance systems are currently installed aboard FAG706.
What can be established is that the aircraft came from a fleet designed for special-operations ISR work and was subsequently donated to Guatemala specifically for surveillance and security-related missions.
U.S. arms shipment arrived three days earlier
The disputed flight came just three days after Guatemala received a major shipment of U.S. military weapons on September 21 — Belize’s Independence Day.
Unlike FAG706, the weapons were not donated. Guatemala purchased them through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales programme as part of a US$5.03 million acquisition that includes 2,699 M4A1 rifles, 59 M240 machine guns, 57 grenade launchers and 11,220 magazines. Guatemala’s state news agency said the September 21 shipment arrived aboard a U.S. Army aircraft, with the first M4 rifles destined for Guatemala’s new Jungle Operations Brigade in Petén.
There is no evidence establishing a connection between that weapons shipment and the disputed September 24 flight, but the timing places the controversy amid a broader expansion of military and security cooperation between Guatemala and the United States following the lifting of long-standing restrictions on U.S. arms sales to Guatemala.
Why Lighthouse Reef and KIRAP?
Belize’s description of the flight raises questions because it says FAG706 did not simply pass through its airspace.
According to Usher, the aircraft approached from the east, entered near Lighthouse Reef and repeatedly circled between Lighthouse Reef and KIRAP.
KIRAP itself is an established aviation navigation fix and is part of published aviation routes, meaning an aircraft travelling near KIRAP would not on that fact alone be conducting an unusual operation.
What Belize has highlighted is the repeated circling.
Usher himself described the aircraft as moving “as if though they were looking for something.”
KIRAP is also located near the southern end of Lighthouse Reef and roughly 10 nautical miles from Half Moon Caye.
There is presently no publicly available evidence establishing what, if anything, FAG706 may have been observing or searching for. Guatemala’s position is more fundamental: it says the overflight described by Belize did not occur at all.
The aircraft’s route before and after the alleged incursion
Public flight-tracking information also showed an aircraft using the FAG706 callsign around Guatemala City earlier in the evening before moving toward the Caribbean.
Belize says the aircraft subsequently approached its territory from the east rather than crossing directly from Guatemala over Belize’s western land border.
According to Belize’s radar information, the aircraft crossed into Belizean airspace near Lighthouse Reef, conducted the circling pattern and later departed south beyond the Sarstoon.
Public tracking information disappeared during part of the flight before showing the aircraft again in Guatemala and ultimately returning to the La Aurora area.
However, civilian tracking information alone cannot establish whether an aircraft crossed a national airspace boundary, which is why Belize has placed particular emphasis on its own primary and secondary radar records.
What happened between 8:07 and 8:40 p.m.?
One of the most important outstanding pieces of evidence concerns the approximately 33 minutes between 8:07 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.
According to Belize, FAG706 disappeared from secondary radar at 8:07 p.m. but continued to appear on primary radar.
“We were able to pick them up on the primary radar, and we continued following them,” Usher said.
Belize therefore says it possesses a radar record of the aircraft’s movements during a period when publicly available tracking data did not show its position.
Those records have become considerably more important now that Guatemala has categorically denied the flight occurred.
If released, Belize’s primary-radar data could show precisely where the aircraft travelled after 8:07 p.m., along with its direction and potentially other characteristics of its flight.
Guatemala, meanwhile, should also possess military operational records capable of establishing where FAG706 was at the same time.
Its UN representative has now said Guatemala will make those reports — and the aircraft itself — available to an OAS investigation.
Questions Belize’s Defence Ministry can answer
With Guatemala now publicly denying the incident, several questions for Ministry of National Defence CEO Francis Usher and Belizean authorities become increasingly important:
1. Will Belize release the complete primary and secondary radar tracks showing FAG706’s movements on September 24?
2. Will Belize release the coordinates showing precisely where the aircraft entered and exited Belizean airspace?
3. What does Belize’s primary radar show FAG706 doing between 8:07 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.?
4. Exactly where were the aircraft’s reported circles centred — KIRAP, Half Moon Caye, another part of Lighthouse Reef or open water?
5. What were FAG706’s altitude, speed and heading during the reported circling pattern?
6. Did Belize’s primary radar detect any other aircraft in the area at the same time?
7. Were Belize Coast Guard, BDF, Fisheries Department or other government operations underway around Lighthouse Reef or Half Moon Caye that evening?
8. Did FAG706 or Guatemalan authorities communicate with Belizean air traffic control, CENAMER or Belize’s defence authorities before or during the reported flight?
9. Has Belize requested Guatemala’s own flight logs or operational records for FAG706 between 7:29 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.?
10. Has Belize sought information from the United States regarding exactly what surveillance equipment was transferred with FAG706 when the aircraft was donated to Guatemala?
A dispute that should be technically verifiable
The controversy has now moved beyond questions about what a Guatemalan military aircraft may have been doing near Lighthouse Reef.
Guatemala says there was no overflight to explain.
Belize says it has technical radar evidence identifying:
FAG706 as the aircraft;
7:29 p.m. as the entry time;
approximately 4,000 feet as its altitude;
Lighthouse Reef and KIRAP as the area where it circled;
8:07 p.m. as the time it disappeared from secondary radar;
continued tracking by primary radar; and
approximately 8:40 p.m. as the time it exited south past the Sarstoon.
Guatemala, on the other hand, has now told the United Nations:
“This overflight never occurred.”
It has accused Belize of spreading misinformation and using the dispute for domestic political purposes, while saying it will cooperate with an OAS investigation.
At the centre of the dispute is an aircraft with an unusually specialized history: a U.S.-donated Pilatus PC-12 that previously served in Afghanistan as part of a special-operations aviation programme whose aircraft performed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, before being transferred to Guatemala for surveillance, security and border-control work.
The competing claims should therefore be capable of being tested against technical records from both countries.
The central question is now straightforward:
Where exactly was FAG706 between 7:29 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. on September 24?
The post Guatemalan military plane that violated Belize’s sovereign airspace was donated to Guatemala by United States Government appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff: The Guatemalan military aircraft that Belize says entered its airspace and spent more than an hour operating near Lighthouse Reef was donated to Guatemala by the United States government and previously served in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-funded special-operations aviation programme whose PC-12 aircraft were used for intelligence, surveillance
The post Guatemalan military plane that violated Belize’s sovereign airspace was donated to Guatemala by United States Government appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.