A White House aide arranged the business jet that carried Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro to the United States on Wednesday 28 October 2026, The New York Times reported, citing a person familiar with the logistics1. The aircraft, an Argentine-registered Gulfstream G400 (LV-JQW), was operated by the Argentine charter company Baires Fly2. Bolsonaro lost the second round of Brazil's presidential election to the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on 25 October, and a Supreme Federal Court justice had barred him from leaving the country3.

A plan set in motion after the passport order

According to The New York Times, the jet was arranged by Jason Miller, who works in the White House communications team. Flávio's brother Eduardo Bolsonaro had been in contact with Miller, and the plan was put into action on Monday 26 October, after Flávio was told to hand in his passports1. Miller declined to comment to the newspaper, and the White House did not address his role, pointing instead to public remarks by President Donald Trump4.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered Bolsonaro to surrender both his ordinary and his diplomatic passport, as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering and illegal currency transfers that also involves the lawyer Willer Tomaz3. Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing and calls the allegations "a politically motivated witch-hunt, intended to hold me hostage"5. He did not meet the deadline, and the Federal Police cancelled the documents2.

A day on the apron at Puerto Iguazú

The Gulfstream left Aeroparque in Buenos Aires at 22:14 local time on Monday 26 October and landed at Puerto Iguazú, on the Brazilian border, shortly before midnight6. According to a reconstruction by La Nación, Baires Fly may have been called that evening from a phone said to be very close to Santiago Caputo, an adviser to Argentine President Javier Milei, and told to accept a request from a US broker for a flight from Iguazú to Florida for a Brazilian family; the request followed shortly afterwards6. Neither the Argentine presidency nor Baires Fly responded to requests for comment, NBC News reported7.

At 00:30 on Tuesday 27 October, Baires Fly asked Argentine customs and immigration to clear a departure to the United States with three crew and four passengers, Perfil reported. No flight plan or passenger list was filed, and the flight was cancelled8. Local sources told Aviacionline that the Argentine civil aviation authority, ANAC, did not authorise a take-off for that destination2. La Nación wrote that the aircraft could not leave without the approval of the US authorities. Bolsonaro was travelling on an Italian passport; Italy is part of the US Visa Waiver Program, which requires an electronic travel authorisation through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, and according to the newspaper the senator did not have one6.

At 22:50 Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves bridge from Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil into Argentina. At 23:30 they boarded the aircraft, whose flight plan listed Guayaquil in Ecuador as the destination, according to Argentina's National Migrations Directorate2. The general declaration seen by La Nación lists Cataratas del Iguazú (SARI) as the origin and Guayaquil (SEGU) as the destination, with the flight type entered as private. It shows four passengers and three crew: two pilots and a cabin crew member, all Argentine6. The jet took off at 00:21 on Wednesday 28 October6, after around 24 hours on the apron at Iguazú2.

Around Brazilian airspace, with a fuel stop in Ecuador

The routing avoided Brazilian airspace: the aircraft flew over Paraguay and made a technical stop in Guayaquil to refuel6. Public ADS-B data from adsb.lol show it over the Paraguayan Chaco about an hour after departure, with a maximum recorded altitude of about 40,000 ft on that leg, and later over Panama heading towards Florida9. It landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport at about 09:30 local time5, where Reuters TV images showed Bolsonaro, his wife and daughters leaving the Gulfstream G4007. ADS-B data show that, shortly after landing, the aircraft made a short flight to the Fort Lauderdale Executive area9.

LV-JQW, serial number 1524, was built in 2004 and has around 14 seats2. Baires Fly was founded in 1996, is based at Aeroparque and operates Learjets and Gulfstreams2. Perfil reviewed the aircraft's flight history: about 290 movements between late October 2025 and late October 2026, 91 of them at Fort Lauderdale Executive and 32 at Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a frequent fuel stop: none of the flights from Buenos Aires to the United States in that period was flown non-stop. Aeroparque is about 7,100 km from Miami, at the limit of a G400's range, Perfil noted. On 31 March 2026 the same aircraft did fly non-stop from Foz do Iguaçu to Fort Lauderdale in about eight and a quarter hours8.

How a foreign business jet enters the United States

Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport is a business aviation airport in the north-west of Miami-Dade County. It operates around the clock, requires no landing slots and has a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office on site6. As a general rule for private aircraft arriving in the United States, US regulations make the pilot responsible for ensuring that CBP receives an electronic notice of arrival and a manifest, including the travel document, document number and US address of everyone on board. The data must be transmitted no later than 60 minutes before departure from the foreign airport10.

Foreign civil aircraft that carry passengers to or from the United States for remuneration or hire need a permit from the US Department of Transportation, unless they operate under a foreign air carrier permit or an exemption11. Foreign air carriers holding such authority operate in the United States under the FAA rules in Part 12912. The Department of Homeland Security said the family completed the applicable immigration procedures and was allowed to proceed after inspection4. The US State Department had said it would grant the family visas7. CNN Brasil reported that the family received conditional permission to stay for up to a year, a status granted in specific cases, including urgent humanitarian ones1.

Perfil reported that the flight cost US$140,000 and was paid for by a US broker13. Poder360 noted that there was no formal confirmation of who hired or paid for the service14.

Reactions in Brazil and the United States

On 28 October Trump confirmed that the United States had allowed Bolsonaro to enter the country, said he would not get involved and described the Brazilian vote as a very strange election1. Lula said: "I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true. This act of leaving Brazil is shameful"7. In a statement after landing, Bolsonaro wrote: "I did not flee Brazil; I left for Brazil's sake"5. He said he would lead the opposition from the United States5.