Minot (KMOT) — April to September 2025
Every single Egyptian-registered aircraft that reached Provo in 2025 entered the United States at Minot, North Dakota. Four aircraft, four arrivals, four immediate onward hops to Utah.
This page exists because that fact changes where the records are. US customs processing for everyone aboard those flights happened at Minot — not at Provo, where every published claim about passengers, contractors and manifests has been directed. Nobody has asked North Dakota for anything.
It also exists because Minot is a genuinely odd choice, and the oddness has not been examined by anyone.
The airport
| Name | Minot International Airport |
| Identifiers | KMOT (ICAO) / MOT (IATA) |
| City / State | Minot, Ward County, North Dakota |
| Class | Commercial-service international airport — small, with customs facilities |
| Nearby | Minot Air Force Base — a separate facility about 13 miles north, home to the 5th Bomb Wing (B-52H) and the 91st Missile Wing (Minuteman III). It is one of the few installations hosting two legs of the US nuclear triad. |
| Distance to Provo (KPVU) | ~900 miles; the logged hops run 1:35 to 1:55 |
How unusual is a foreign government jet here
Very. And this is the one place in this section where the anomaly reading has real force.
Minot is a small northern-plains airport. It has customs, which is why it is technically eligible, but it is nobody's natural transatlantic entry point. A Cairo–Utah trip has obvious alternatives: the East Coast fields this same fleet uses on the way out (Wilmington), the Canadian tech stops the Gulfstreams use (Goose Bay), or any of the western international airports — Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas.
This same operator used Omaha, Detroit and St. Louis as entry points for its Nebraska, Michigan and Missouri rotations. All three are conventional. Every Utah-bound flight went to Minot instead. That is a consistent, deliberate-looking choice across four flights and four months, and no published account explains it.
The critical distinction: MOT is not the Air Force base
Claims circulating on X state that these aircraft "arrived via Minot Air Force Base" and treat that as placing foreign state aircraft on a nuclear-mission installation. One analysis quoted on the SU-BTT page puts it directly: "both of them arrived via Minot Air Force Base. This is America's only nuclear-based that holds 2 out of the 3 US nuclear triad."
The flight-history exports do not show that. They show "Minot (MOT)" — the identifier for Minot International Airport, the civil field. Minot Air Force Base is a separate installation with its own identifier (KMIB / MIB) about 13 miles away.
This distinction is not pedantry. It is the difference between two very different claims:
- What the record supports: foreign state aircraft repeatedly cleared US customs at a small civil airport in North Dakota, thirteen miles from a nuclear-weapons base, before flying on to Utah.
- What the record does not support: foreign state aircraft landing on that base.
The first claim is odd enough on its own and it is the one that should be pressed. The second, stated without evidence, is the kind of overreach that lets the first be dismissed alongside it.
The foreign side — every arrival
| Date | Aircraft | Arrived from | Leg duration | Onward to Provo | Hop duration | Ground time at Minot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Apr 2025 | SU-BTU | Paris–Le Bourget | 8:11 | Provo, landed 12:32 pm | 1:43 | minutes to ~1 h |
| 23 May 2025 | SU-BND | Goose Bay (YYR) | 3:44 | Provo, landed 2:38 pm | 1:52 | ~1 h |
| 27 May 2025 | SU-BTV | Paris–Le Bourget | 8:21 | Provo | 1:55 | ~1 h |
| 4 Sep 2025 | SU-BTT | Paris–Le Bourget, landing 11:03 am | 8:52 | Provo, landed 12:46 pm | 1:39 | ~1 hour |
Not one of these aircraft stayed at Minot. Every arrival is followed within about an hour by departure for Utah. It is the same signature as Omaha — a customs stop that a leg-level tally would score as a visit.
The 4 September sequence, minute by minute
The best-documented of the four, and the one that matters:
| Time (local) | Event |
|---|---|
| 3 Sep 2025 | Cairo → Paris–Le Bourget, 4:03 |
| 4 Sep 2025, 11:03 am | Lands Minot (MOT) after an 8:52 transatlantic leg |
| 4 Sep 2025, ~11:45 am | Departs Minot |
| 4 Sep 2025, 12:46 pm | Lands Provo (PVU), 1:39 en route |
About one hour on the ground at Minot — enough to clear customs and take fuel, and not much more.
Six days later, this aircraft departed Provo at 07:14 am on 10 September.
Why this relocates the entire passenger question
Every claim on this site about who was aboard these aircraft — the alleged subcontractors, the "DoD Liaison" badges, the counter-UAS technicians, the named passenger, the missing manifests, the Provo "no-scan priority clearance" — is a claim about Provo.
But Provo was a domestic arrival. By the time these aircraft touched down in Utah, everyone aboard had already been admitted to the United States, hours earlier and 900 miles away.
That means:
- The CBP entry records are Minot records. Passport data, admission records, crew lists and any I-94 processing for every person aboard all four flights exist at Minot International Airport, North Dakota.
- The general declaration (gen dec) — the arriving-crew-and-passenger form filed on international arrival — was filed at Minot.
- Any customs inspection of the aircraft or its cargo happened at Minot.
- A Provo FBO record shows a domestic arrival, which is a far thinner document.
No published request, FOIA, or inquiry has been directed at Minot by anyone in this investigation. Given that a substantial part of the SU-BTT page consists of unverified claims about who was aboard, and that the records capable of answering them sit at a single small airport in North Dakota, this is the largest unexploited lead in the aircraft angle of the case.
The overlap table
| Date | Foreign tail | Foreign movement | Kirk / TPUSA side | Gap | Arrived from | Departed to | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Apr 2025 | SU-BTU | Customs stop, ~1 h | (none — nobody claims a North Dakota overlap) | — | Paris (LBG) | Provo (PVU) | Export only |
| 23 May 2025 | SU-BND | Customs stop, ~1 h | (none) | — | Goose Bay (YYR) | Provo (PVU) | Audit: index 35 accurate (Provo landing) |
| 27 May 2025 | SU-BTV (tail disputed) | Customs stop, ~1 h | (none) | — | Paris (LBG) | Provo (PVU) | Export; tail number disputed |
| 4 Sep 2025 | SU-BTT | Lands 11:03 am, departs ~11:45 am | UVU event 10 Sep | 6 days before | Paris (LBG) | Provo, landed 12:46 pm | Audit: index 40 accurate |
No Kirk or TPUSA pairing has ever been offered for Minot by anyone. North Dakota is not among the five states in the clustering. This airport enters the investigation solely as the entry point for the Provo arrivals — which is precisely why it has been overlooked.
A related North Dakota entry
The 2024 record has one more North Dakota data point that fits the pattern: SU-BTT's 23 April 2024 arrival at Provo routed Cairo → Paris → Williston, North Dakota (XWA) → Provo, landing at 12:13 pm. The independent audit marks it accurate, noting "Acc 4/22-23. Williston code XWA."
Williston is a different North Dakota field — Williston Basin International, in the Bakken oil region, about 120 miles west of Minot. So across two years the fleet used two different small North Dakota airports as its Utah entry point, never the same one twice in a row and never a conventional western international airport.
That strengthens rather than weakens the observation. A single odd routing choice is a fluke. Five Utah-bound flights over eighteen months, all entering through small northern-plains fields, is a pattern with a reason behind it — and nobody has established what the reason is.
The mundane candidates are real and should be stated: great-circle routing from Paris to Utah passes over the northern plains, so Minot and Williston are close to the direct line; both have customs; both are uncongested and cheap; and a fuel stop after eight and a half hours across the Atlantic is ordinary. That may be the whole answer. It has simply never been checked against the alternative — that a small field with minimal traffic and minimal scrutiny was chosen for a reason.
The counterargument
- Minot International is a civil airport with customs facilities. Clearing there is lawful and ordinary.
- The great-circle route from Paris to Utah crosses the northern plains. Minot is near the direct line; it is not a detour.
- Ground times of about an hour are consistent with customs and fuel, nothing more.
- The Air Force base is a separate installation. Nothing in the flight record places any of these aircraft on it.
- No Kirk or TPUSA pairing is claimed here by anyone, including by the people making the strongest claims elsewhere.
- The pattern includes Williston in 2024, so it is not specific to Minot or to 2025.
What we do not know
- The CBP records at Minot for all four 2025 arrivals — and the Williston record for April 2024. These exist and have never been requested. They would answer the passenger question directly.
- Why Minot and Williston rather than a western international airport. No published account addresses it.
- Whether anyone joined or left the aircraft at Minot. The one-hour ground times permit it.
- Whether the aircraft or its cargo were inspected. A customs inspection record would exist if so.
- Whether the 27 May arrival was SU-BTV or SU-BTU — the tail dispute set out on the Provo page applies to this arrival too, since the Minot leg and the Provo leg are the same flight.
Links
- Up: Following overview · Following Charlie or Erika · Planes
- Where every Minot arrival went: Provo (KPVU)
- Tails: SU-BTT · SU-BTU · SU-BTV · SU-BND
- The conventional entry points this fleet used elsewhere: Omaha (KOMA) · Detroit (KDTW) · St. Louis (KSTL)
- The exit point: Wilmington (KILG)
- The passenger claims this page relocates: SU-BTT · Egyptian Crew Hotel