I have in front of me a rather curious fax. It's not addressed to me or to anyone else at the Kyiv Post, and it doesn't seem to have been sent by anyone we know. It's on the letterhead of a private individual from Gouvieux, France, but it was sent from the fax machine of a very expensive Kyiv hotel. I'm not sure what the person who sent it to us hoped we would do with it, but ignore it obviously isn't the answer, as each of its six pages was faxed to us twice.
It's addressed to one Alex Krimshansky, copied to one Ray Adams, and signed with an undecipherable flourish. It's titled '1999 Flights' and lists nine flights between late January and Feb. 7. The first two are from Paris to Geneva and back and are labeled 'President N-A-N.' They apparently don't concern us, as they are separated from the remaining seven flights by a horizontal line, and no further information on them is provided.
Flights three and four are labeled 'Naftgaz' and for flight four, and the remainder of the flights, we also received flight manifest forms. The manifest forms all bear the name 'Aviation Methods, Inc.,' and the code 'N 263 PW.' Boxes identify the pilot as 'RVA' (Ray, I suppose) and his copilot as 'CLD.'
Flight three is listed as Paris to Kyiv, Jan. 30. Flight four, as described on the manifest form, carried passengers 'Bakai,' 'Kucherenko' and 'Nezhinskaya' from Kyiv's Boryspil airport and landed at London's Gatwick at 3:50 p.m on Jan. 31.
Flights five and six, labeled as 'technical,' were a round trip from London to Paris with no passengers. Flight seven, eight and nine are again labeled 'Naftgaz.'
Flight seven, according to the manifest, left London Gatwick at 9:15 p.m. on Feb. 3 taking the same three passengers back to Kyiv Boryspil, plus one extra, identified as 'Davidveich.'
If I interpret the next manifest correctly, flight eight left Kyiv Boryspil at 2:15 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 5. It carried the same four passengers listed above plus six others: 'Simonovski,' 'Moshenko,' 'Dimitrov,' 'Clodonov,' 'Prokopiev' and 'Strogonov.' We certainly don't vouch for the accuracy of those identifications, let alone the spelling of those names. According to the form, the enlarged party landed just before 8:30 a.m. local time in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan.
Another day, another flight, another form. This one lists a flight leaving Ashgabad at 3:20 a.m. local time on the morning of the Feb. 6 with the same party, except that 'Davidveich' is now spelled 'Davidvieich.' It landed at Boryspil at just after 4 a.m. local time.
Flight nine's form actually lists two flights, the first to Lviv, with no passengers, leaving at 3:25 p.m on Feb. 7, and the second departing to Kyiv an hour later, with one passenger, identified as 'Bakaiva.'
I don't know what all this is supposed to add up to. Maybe one of you can figure it out.
