BREAKING—King Vajiralongkorn's plane HS-MVS is on the way back to Europe via Dubai

Andrew MacGregor Marshall@zenjournalist

5h

 

BREAKING—King Vajiralongkorn's plane HS-MVS is on the way back to Europe via Dubai

 

 

 

2m

 

UPDATE—Several sources are saying King Vajiralongkorn is still in Thailand and not aboard the royal plane heading to Europe. Will post more information when I get it.

 

 

 

Andrew MacGregor Marshall@zenjournalist

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26m

Looks like King Vajiralongkorn's plane is heading to Munich, but we still don't know if he is aboard. Will keep you updated.

 

Andrew MacGregor Marshall@zenjournalist

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4h

UPDATE—One of King Vajiralongkorn's personal 737 planes, registration numbers VMS10 and HS-MVS, is heading back to Europe. We don't know yet if he is aboard, but sources say he wanted to go back to Germany around this time. 1/5

 

I'm trying to confirm who is on the flight and I also spoke to my journalist friends in Germany who have much better contacts there than me, so hopefully we will know soon. 2/5

The plane made a brief stop in Dubai but this has no connection to Thaksin Shinawatra, a 737 can't fly all the way to Europe without a refuelling stop, and Dubai is the easiest place to get quickly refuelled and resume the flight. 3/5

 

Usually the king flies on 747s to Europe so the plane doesn't have to stop, but when his consort Sineenat "Koi" Wongvajirapakdi was released from jail and flown back to Europe almost exactly a year ago, she went on another of his 737s, HS-HMK. 4/5

 

As soon as I have more information on who is on the plane, I will let you know  5/5

Andrew MacGregor Marshall@zenjournalist

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3h

Thai royal plane HS-MVS is over Iraq, it just flew over Baghdad where I used to live when I was Reuters bureau chief there. We still don’t know where it is going but probably Munich or Zurich.