No emergency, just paperwork: Why Boliviana de Aviación’s OB708 detoured over the Atlantic
A flight from Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires “went long” and flew over the Atlantic: the complex legal and financial reason behind Boliviana de Aviación’s unusual OB708 route
Ah, the rush for exclusives—a modern-day affliction that often leads to curiosity, sometimes uncertainty, and too often, confusion. On June 5, Boliviana de Aviación flight OB708 extended its usual route and flew over the Atlantic Ocean, prompting premature speculation about an emergency or incident.
But the reality, confirmed by the airline, lies more in legal nuance than in crisis, and involved no risk to passengers. The key term? Lex Situs—Latin for "the law of the place where the property is located."
The Boeing 737-800, registration CP-3204, operating the regular route from Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI) to Buenos Aires with 166 passengers, intentionally deviated from its direct course. Instead of flying straight to Ezeiza, the aircraft headed east over the Río de la Plata and into international waters over the Atlantic before turning back for its final approach. The maneuver added about an hour to the flight time.
Boliviana de Aviación stated that the operation was planned and controlled. The airline explained that the route was part of a “legal aircraft novation process” that “requires flying over international waters to validate the transfer of ownership in accordance with applicable regulations.” BoA assured that the procedure was executed safely and without incident for passengers and crew.
The aircraft crossed the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit of Argentina—beyond which airspace is international—and completed the transaction before landing normally. No emergency. No incident. Just a legal maneuver in the skies.
Understanding the maneuver: Lex Situs in commercial aviation
While no international treaty mandates that an aircraft must fly over the ocean for such transactions, the practice is deeply rooted in aviation and financial law. The critical concept is lex situs—“the law of the place where the asset is located.”
In high-value transactions like the sale or leasing of an aircraft, the legal jurisdiction in which the deal is closed is crucial. The laws of the country where the aircraft physically is during the transaction can affect contract validity, create unexpected tax obligations, or complicate legal rights for the seller, buyer, or financier.
Novation: Legal Doctrine and Case Law
What is aircraft novation? It's a legal act that replaces an existing contractual obligation with a new one—often referring in aviation to the transfer of a lease contract from one lessor to another, with the airline’s consent.
Why conduct it over international waters? Because in international airspace, no nation exercises sovereignty. This means that the law governing the transaction defaults to that of the aircraft’s country of registration or the law stipulated in the contract. This neutral legal ground helps avoid jurisdictional complications, including taxes or conflicting regulations.
Legal and financial teams prefer to execute such contracts mid-air over international waters to create a predictable legal environment—usually favoring the laws of England or New York—thus ensuring legal clarity and minimizing future dispute risks.
This practice was cemented by a landmark court case—Blue Sky One and others v International Lease Finance Corporation— where the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the aircraft's physical location at the time of the transaction was essential to the legal validity of the title transfer.
In response, the aviation finance industry adopted a conservative approach: close transactions over international waters to ensure that the contract is governed exclusively by the chosen legal system, without interference from territorial laws.
The CP-3204 is a Boeing 737-86J with prior service in Europe before joining Boliviana de Aviación. Like many aircraft, it is operated under a complex operating lease—this one involving SMBC, a major global lessor.
The OB708 flight maneuver likely marked a restructuring of that lease—perhaps a transfer between investment funds or lessors, a common practice in global fleet management.
So let’s all calm down: BoA’s unusual flight path wasn’t an error or emergency, but rather the visible execution of a standard step in an international legal-financial operation. Curious? Yes. Rare? Not really. Interesting? Always.
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