17: Hot Stuff (Natural Wonders)

[civic echo]

Names change! In open source research it's often useful to find up to date information about the names or designations of people, places and things.
The large number identifying this helicopter has been changed since this photo was taken. Can you find its new number?
As of July 2024, what is the tail number and large number of this helicopter? (Use the format TAILNUMBER-LARGENUMBER, i.e AB-CDE-99)

17: Locked (Natural Wonders)

[wide rose]

Just to make sure I don't have the right code and not that I didn't get the format right || the guy on Twitter who uploaded a photo of this exact helicopter but gives a different Large number got it wrong? ||

[violet mica]

As written on the challenge the large number has changed. ||Not the tail number||

[wide rose]

Yeah, I get that. || That's the only difference between the code I find on pre-2024 photos and the code this guy gives but it doesn't work so I probably have the wrong one. The EC-***-21 part is the same||

[wide rose]

Never mind. Got it. || I thought the large number was only the three letters||

[visual ivy]

|| Found the heli trough google lens, then applied some search on appropriate sites and got a newer photo of it ||

[wispy inlet]

Same, ||just a matter of sorting by new in those websites and boom, July 2024||

[stiff schooner]

Had an idea in which language "bombers" means ||"firefighters"|| and it was correct. This gives you the region (I wanted to solve this without reverse image search)
Googling ||"bombers catalunya helicopters"|| leads to this website: ||https://transitaeri.cat/2021/06/11/mitjans-aeris-dels-bombers-de-la-generalitat-de-catalunya/||. You find the helicopter with the right large number here. However, the tail number is not correct in the image on this website. I had to to an additional Google search using the helicopter model: ||"Eurocopter A350 bombers catalunya"|| and this gave me another image of a catalan firefighting helicopter with the large number 11 and the right tail number.

[civic echo]

17: Hot Stuff (Natural Wonders)

[smoky kayak]

This one took me some time. I know there are databases that can help identify aircraft - but which one. || Quickly found who operated this helicopter. Perplexity identified exactly who it was. || But then which helicopter.... that took a while. || I noticed that eacy one similar had a prefix EC- so checked and this was for Spain. So started to look for images of the relevant helicopters to find the one with the 21 on the body. Once I'd found photos it was then pretty easy to get the codes and an up-to-date number for the code ||

[balmy hollow]

All I can say is bless the ||obsessive planespotters who carefully upload their photos to the web, complete with helicopter model and, most critically, serial number. (Google Lens got me to a good database of helicopter pics, and from a 2021 pic, I was able to sort by serial number and date taken.) ||

[tame crater]

This is also how I found this one! I thought it would be difficult, but the ||planespotters|| made it all so easy!

[plain stag]

Neat, just figured this one out!

One thing is still puzzling me though. I was able to find the answer by browsing ||jetphotos.com and filtering by "Generalitat de Catalunya", suggesting that copter #21 changed number to #11 between 2021 and 2024. But if you look at the 2021 photo of the copter showing its left side, you'll notice that the black stripe on the tail doesn't match the black stripe on the tail in the clue photo. I wonder if it's very common for them to change the paint patterns?||

[placid ice]

I actually also want to know this. ||EC-NNO has the right paint pattern, but it never (that I could find) was number 21. However, EC-MQR, which once was 21 and is now 41, never had the right paint pattern||

actually even more suspicious ||is that the landing feet(?) of EC-MQR are also the wrong color. They again match EC-NNO instead||

[placid ice]

WOO!! ||https://x.com/FlightradarCAT/status/1547601503572992000/photo/2|| I found proof that the challenge was wrong!

[placid ice]

||EXIFTool output:

ExifTool Version Number         : 12.57
Create Date                     : 2022:06:25 11:22:46.00
Date/Time Original              : 2022:06:25 11:22:46.00

The photo in the challenge was taken June 2022
This is July 2022: https://x.com/FlightradarCAT/status/1547601503572992000/photo/2
EC-NKD is the correct serial number, not EC-MQR. I have not found any information on EC-NKD for 2024, but BY 2023, the number was EC-NKD-61: https://x.com/FlightradarCAT/status/1674826474304552969||

[plain stag]

oh wow. this is great. I didn't find their twitter during my search

[placid ice]

I kina want to do a write up on this one since it was way more wild to find this info than was intended 😂

[plain stag]

please do, I would read it!

I also thought this was hands down the most complicated out of the first row of challenges

[placid ice]

Works for me! I'll link it once I write it (I've never done a writeup before so it'll take a while, be bad, or both 😂😂)

[hasty lava]

Wow! This is great work! 🙌

[covert blaze]

Woah this is incredible work! Apologies for getting it wrong when I made the challenge, and sending you on a goose chase of sorts, but this is impressive work! Here are a few bonus photos from the fire, which occurred in La Jonquera, Spain.

[placid ice]

Thanks! I had a super fun time finding all the information I needed to actually prove my findings 🙂 it made it even more fun of a challenge than you'd intended! 😄

[wide rose]

|| That explains that tweet I found and had me confused at first. I just automatically assumed I was wrong and tried a work around. ||

[placid ice]

https://nathanielgrahamdev.wordpress.com/2025/01/29/bellingcat-challenge-writeup-natural-wonders-002-hot-stuff/ boom

(mods, if you'd rather I post this elsewhere in the discord, please lmk, I'm happy to (re)move it as needed)

[obtuse aurora]

I have not seen anyone upload this photo, but I came across what I assuming the exact model of helicopter. The Reg visible is E_-NK_ most likely the last letter being a round one, something like O or D. https://www.alamy.de/general-view-of-a-helicopter-during-the-fire-in-peramola-on-june-19-2022-in-peramola-lleida-catalonia-spain-the-fire-affects-the-roc-de-rombau-area-and-the-firefighters-are-working-to-prevent-it-from-opening-towards-the-auben-mountain-range-prioritizing-the-right-flank-and-working-from-the-tail-to-the-head-with-aerial-means-there-are-35-ground-crews-and-seven-air-resources-activated-19-june-2022fireperamolacataloniacatalunyafirefighters-pau-de-la-calle-europa-press-06192022-europa-press-via-ap-image527977565.html

The date of the challenge photo indicates 2022-06-25 based on the metadata, while the attached photo is from 2022-06-19. So this is closely matching as well.