Chinese Wing Loong Drone Caught Spoofing Multiple Aircraft on FlightRadar24
On FlightRadar24, an old Soviet four-engine IL-92 cargo aircraft appeared to be making a series of bizarre manoeuvres. But the situation was not what it seemed. A Chinese-made Wing Loong drone, using the fake callsign YILO4200, was impersonating (spoofing) an IL-92 with the registration EW-450TR.
The discovery was made by the X-account @thereccelizard, who traced the activity back to Qionghai Bo’ao Airport on Hainan Island, where the drone appears to be based. The IL-92 is not the only aircraft the drone has spoofed. Other fake identities include a Gulfstream G450, a Eurofighter Typhoon, and even a North Korean Air Koryo IL-62 bearing registration P-885.
The flightpath shown below illustrates how the Chinese drone mimicked the IL-92 EW-450TR. All spoofed tracks can be identified by the callsign YILO4200. The real IL-92 operated by Rada Airlines uses a callsign beginning with RDA, the airline’s ICAO three-letter designator.
The earliest known instance of the IL-92 spoofing occurred on 22 August 2025.
