Ali Itani, Dubai

From the involvement of paramilitary forces to being smuggled out of Japan in a musical instrument case, details of Carlos Ghosn’s escape remain blurred between fact and fiction as investigations continue.

However, one website believes it has at least pinned down the planes the fugitive businessman employed.

Arab News Japan sources confirmed yesterday Ghosn travelled from Japan to Turkey on a cargo plane before travelling on to Beirut via private jet.

Swedish website Flight Radar 24 reported it tracked one flight which departed from (KIX) Kansai airport on Dec 29, at 11:10 p.m. Japan local time and after a 12-hour flight landed in Istanbul at 5:15 a.m. CET on a Bombardier Global Express registered to MNG Jet Aerospace.

If proven to be the flight Ghosn used, his departure from Kansai airport which is in the city of Osaka, and not Tokyo where the ex-Nissan boss lived under house arrest, could be another dramatic piece in the jigsaw.

The distance would have meant he would have had to travel by car or highspeed bullet train, but he would have had to be disguised in order to avoid capture.

Finally from Istanbul Ghosn boarded a private plane, again a Bombardier, this time a challenger 300 which flew him directly to Beirut where the businessman remains with family.