Egypt Enforces Livery Censorship on Boeing 787 Destined for Gaza’s Civilian Relief

For a year now, the Boeing 787-8 (P4-787) of Argentine pilot and filmmaker Enrique Piñeyro, who also leads the NGO Solidaire, has been sporting a special livery to protest against the executions carried out by the government of Iran.

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Along the fuselage, the aircraft displays three phrases: «No woman should be forced to cover her head,» «No woman should be killed for not covering her head,» and «No man should be hanged for saying this.»

Additionally, on one side of the tail of the 787, there is a photo of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman who was detained in September 2022 by the morality police for not wearing her veil properly and later died in custody, sparking a wave of protests at the time. On the other side, there is a photo of 26-year-old Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani, sentenced to 26 years in jail for participating in the protests.

Hoy llegó @rodstewart al país. Se bajó de su avión, vió el Boeing 787 de Solidaire y quiso sacarse fotos con las imágenes de Mahsa Amini y Amir Nasr-Azadani. Ella fue asesinada por el régimen iraní y él fue condenado a 26 años de prisión por defender los derechos de las mujeres. pic.twitter.com/qRCmahTlgP

— Enrique Piñeyro (@epineyro_ok) October 3, 2023

The plane normally conducts humanitarian flights around the world supporting all kinds of causes, but this time it encountered an obstacle in delivering humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Gaza.

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According to Piñeyro, as reported through his Twitter account, due to some of the inscriptions on the livery, the Egyptian government did not allow the Boeing 787-8 to land at El Arish airport, a city located on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai Peninsula, about 40 kilometers from the Gaza border.

That is why they had to remove from the tail the photo of Mahsa Amini and the phrase «No woman should be killed for not covering her head,» as can be seen in this video:

Para que Solidaire pudiera llevar ayuda humanitaria para la población civil de Gaza tuvimos que sacar del avión la foto de Mahsa Amini y la frase
lNINGUNA MUJER DEBERÍA SER ASESINADA POR NO CUBRIRSE LA CABEZA
sino el gobierno egipcio no nos permitía aterrizar en El Arish. pic.twitter.com/9ypY47LIlL

— Enrique Piñeyro (@epineyro_ok) December 21, 2023

According to Flightradar, the Boeing 787-8 took off from Buenos Aires to Warsaw on December 18, and from there to Madrid on December 20. The next day it flew to El Arish, returning in the afternoon to the Spanish capital.

Piñeyro acquired this aircraft in 2021, and during the certification period, he completed one of the longest flights on a Boeing 787 connecting Seoul, South Korea, with Buenos Aires, Argentina. The flight lasted 20 hours and 19 minutes and covered a distance of 10,520 nautical miles (19,483 km).

See also: Behind the longest flight of the Boeing 787-8: interview with Comlux CEO Andrea Zanetto