Karol G’s Private Jet: “Tusa Airlines,” J Balvin’s Old Falcon and the Gulfstream That Turned Back

On February 29, 2024, a Gulfstream carrying Karol G and 15 other people climbed out of Burbank, reported smoke on board over the Cajon Pass and turned back to land at Van Nuys. Nobody was hurt. The jet wore her barbed-wire heart logo, yet it was not hers.

That aircraft was HI1025, a Dominican-registered Gulfstream G400 owned by the charter company Helidosa. The Karol G private jet most fans know is a different airplane: “Tusa Airlines,” the jet J Balvin had used for years, which she showed off on Instagram in February 2020.

This guide covers what the aircraft registers actually show, both airplanes, the 2024 emergency landing, and one widely repeated date that the record contradicts.

Does Karol G Own a Private Jet?

Not on the US register. We searched the FAA’s releasable aircraft database (the November 2, 2026 release) for Giraldo, Giraldo Navarro, Karol and Bichota. No current registration and no cancelled one names her or a company carrying those names.

That is not the whole answer, because Karol G is Colombian. Carolina Giraldo Navarro was born in Medellín, and a Latin American star can hold an aircraft on a register outside the US, or through a company whose name gives nothing away. We could not search Colombia’s register by owner name, so a foreign-registered jet cannot be ruled out.

What the record does show is narrower and more useful: one jet she took over from J Balvin in 2020, and one chartered Gulfstream whose registration is public because of an emergency.

Karol G’s Private Jet Fleet

Two aircraft can be tied to Karol G with sources. Only the first can be tied to her by registration, and it belongs to a charter operator.

Gulfstream G400 (G-IV)HI1025 · serial 1500 · Helidosa, Dominican Republic

Chartered · Feb. 2024 tour

Built2002 (FAA record as N50EE)

Range4,220 nm (Gulfstream IV family)

Max cruise488 kt

Engines2 × Rolls-Royce Tay 611-8

Aboard Feb. 29, 202416 people

Left US registerJune 2, 2017

Dassault Falcon 2000 "Tusa Airlines"Ex-J Balvin jet · registration not confirmed

Reported · from Feb. 2020

IntroducedFeb. 21, 2020, on Instagram

Previous userJ Balvin

Range2,841 nm (original Falcon 2000)

PassengersUp to 10

Engines2 × CFE738-1-1B

PriceNot disclosed

The Origin Story: From Tusa Airlines to a Charter Gulfstream

Karol G’s aviation story runs alongside her rise from a Colombian reggaeton act to a stadium headliner. It starts with a joke about a song title and ends, so far, on a ramp at Van Nuys.

Inside the Gulfstream G400 HI1025

Diario Libre identified the jet the day after the emergency. The president of the Dominican general aviation association, Francisco Díaz, told the paper it was a Gulfstream G400 registered HI1025 and owned by Helidosa, a Santo Domingo company that runs charter, air ambulance and helicopter tour flights.

The airframe is older than its Dominican registration. Charter listings give its serial as 1500 and its former US marks as N50EE, and the FAA’s deregistered file confirms it: serial 1500, a G-IV (G400) built in 2002, cancelled from the US register on June 2, 2017.

The G400 is a late version of the Gulfstream IV, Gulfstream’s large-cabin jet built from 1985 to 2018. Here is how the type measures up.

A range of 4,220 nm is far more than a Central American tour leg needs. What a charter G400 offers a touring artist is cabin space for a crew of dancers, stylists and family, which is why 16 people could ride on it that night.

The livery explains the “Karol G’s private jet” headlines. ABC7’s footage showed the aircraft wearing the barbed-wire heart from her tattoo. Branding is not ownership, and Helidosa’s name is the one on the registration.

Tusa Airlines: The Falcon She Took Over From J Balvin

On February 21, 2020, Karol G posted a video of herself as a flight attendant: “Muy buenos días, señores pasajeros. Sean bienvenidos a Tusa Airlines.” She called the jet “full of dreams, of goals, of joy,” because it had carried her friend J Balvin for many years.

Colombian coverage reported it as a jet J Balvin sold her, and a Chilean outlet repeated in November 2021 that she bought it from him in February 2020. Neither report gives a type, a registration or a price, and we found no register entry that names her.

The type comes from J Balvin’s side. A FlightAware photo shows “J Balvin’s F2000” arriving from Guatemala City for a concert, registered N714JB, and later fleet guides describe Karol G’s jet as a Dassault Falcon 2000. Today the FAA lists N714JB, a Falcon 2000 serial 18, under OJW LLC of Wilmington, Delaware, with a certificate issued March 26, 2026.

The original Falcon 2000 is a twin-engine Dassault business jet that entered service in 1995. It carries up to 10 passengers about 2,841 nm on two CFE738 turbofans, well short of the Gulfstream’s reach.

The February 29, 2024 Emergency Landing

The Gulfstream left Hollywood Burbank Airport on Thursday night, February 29, 2024, during the Mañana Será Bonito tour. It flew east, and near the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County the pilot reported smoke and turned back, according to KABC-TV.

The jet landed at Van Nuys Airport around 9 p.m., where emergency crews met it. The Associated Press reported 16 people aboard and no immediate reports of injuries, and ABC7’s helicopter footage showed Karol G stepping off and hugging her companions on the ramp.

Reports differ on two details. AP said smoke was in the cockpit while Diario Libre said the cabin, and ¡Hola! said the flight was bound for Guatemala, where she had shows on March 1 and 2, while other accounts give El Salvador. The cause of the smoke was not made public.

The next day she posted on Instagram: “Mi familia, mi equipo y yo estamos todos muy bien y agradecidos por una nueva oportunidad.” In English: my family, my team and I are all very well and grateful for a new opportunity.

Karol G’s Most Famous Private Jet Moments

“Bienvenidos a Tusa Airlines”

The 2020 flight attendant video is still the most shared clip of Karol G in a private jet. She gave the airline a flight code, TQSA, and called the aircraft “el avión del perreo,” a nod to the reggaeton dance.

Christmas on the Bichota Tour

In November 2021 she filled the cabin with lights, a Santa figure and a mini Christmas tree by a window. “Llegó la Navidad al avión de la G,” she shouted in her Instagram stories: Christmas has arrived on G’s plane.

The Van Nuys turnaround

The 2024 emergency is the moment that put a registration on the record. Without it, the aircraft behind the tour would have stayed as anonymous as most charter jets.

How Karol G Compares to Other Music Stars

Karol G’s pattern of one taken-over jet and charter for the big tours puts her closer to the renters than the owners. The Weeknd’s private jet story is the same answer at a larger scale: no aircraft on the register, and two rented airliners carrying a record tour.

The closest parallel is Post Malone’s private jet record. He also owns nothing on the US register, and his best-known flight was also a chartered Gulfstream IV that ended in an emergency landing, in his case after tires blew on departure in 2018.

For the stars who do own their aircraft, our roundup of celebrities with private jets lists the tail numbers. Against that list, Karol G’s record is unusually thin for an artist of her size, and that is the honest answer to the question.