Bellingcat OSINT Challenge Walkthrough: Touching Tarmac

📝Bellingcat OSINT Challenge Walkthrough: Touching Tarmac (Above and Beyond Series)

Introduction

In this writeup, I break down the solution for Challenge #86, “Touching Tarmac,” from Bellingcat’s Above and Beyond series (created by Logan).

• Question: “While taxiing I took this photo of several aircraft, one looking particularly worse for wear! What is the ICAO code of this airport?”

Step 1: Visual Inspection & Anomaly Detection

The primary challenge image shows a view from an aircraft window while taxiing on an airport tarmac.

Looking closely at the background:

1. Several parked regional turboprop aircraft are visible on the apron.
2. The aircraft feature a distinct livery: a white fuselage with yellow/green palm tree motifs and yellow tail accents.
3. The surrounding environment (lush tropical greenery and weather conditions) hinted at a Caribbean or Central American region.

Step 2: Reverse Image Search & Livery Identification

I cropped in on the parked aircraft with the yellow and green livery and conducted a Reverse Image Search (Google Lens).

The search immediately matched the distinct livery and airframe to Aero Caribbean (specifically their ATR 42 / ATR 72 fleet).

Step 3: Open-Source Research & Hub Discovery

With the airline identified as Aero Caribbean (Empresa Aerocaribbean SA), I conducted open-source research via Wikipedia to determine their main hub of operations.

• Airline Profile: Aero Caribbean was a Cuban airline based in Havana operating domestic and regional charter flights before merging into Cubana de Aviación in 2015.
• Main Operational Hub: The airline’s primary hub and base was José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba.

Step 4: Finding the ICAO Code

Since the challenge specifically requested the ICAO code of the airport, I navigated to the page for José Martí International Airport.

Key Takeaways

• Crop & Focus: Isolating distinct features (such as aircraft livery or tail logos) before running a reverse image search significantly improves accuracy.
• Aviation OSINT: Connecting airframe liveries to fleet history and main hubs remains one of the fastest pivoting techniques in airport geolocation challenges.