Tomorrow, December 8th.
Next posts will be an eye whitness account of what really happened on BA 38, which crashed at London's Heathrow airport........
As well as a tongue in cheek look at the world of contract flying. This was also first published in Airways Magazine.
Friday 7 December 2012
FROM WAR TORN BAGHDAD TO A WAR ZONE THAT WAS TRIPOLI………PART 2.
Often the flying part is the easiest of the tasks set for a
pilot. It is the organisation and operation on the ground which requires the
greatest skills, both in diplomacy and management, and this day would test both
of these.
Annoyingly my mobile phone would not work here on the ground
in Tripoli, and my only means of communication with my boss in the UK and Iraqi
Airways in Baghdad was through Stockholm Radio using the HF network, not ideal,
so an alternative needed to be sourced to solve this problem, along with other
problems which were starting to unfold on a minute by minute basis.
With various people boarding our aircraft and being searched
by our Iraqi Airways security team, it soon materialised that before anything
could be done we had to pay. This would be for navigation fees, landing
charges, handling and parking charges too. So with a member of the Iraqi
Embassy and a local Libyan handling agent I was whisked off to relieve myself
of several thousand US Dollars. Accompanied by a fabulous gentleman, again a
member of our security team, who did a great impression of Lord Nelson, as he
always kept his hand inside his buttoned up jacket, we drove off to the flight
planning and handling office. Now I have been to many of these ‘departments’ in
my career, but the sight of this one was one which I was totally unprepared
for. It resembled a rundown squat used as a New York crack den and inhabited by
some very untidy individuals. However, the Libyan staff here could not have
been more helpful. They had nothing, their country was in melt down, yet what
they did have they wanted to share with me; a cup of ‘chai’ with them was
almost a humbling experience.
One member of the local Iraqi Embassy staff kindly leant me
his personal mobile phone which was most welcome, and I was allowed to keep it
for the ‘duration’, I am sure he meant just a couple of hours, but I returned
it two days later and with its credit exhausted!
Returning to my aircraft, it materialised that we only had
70 passengers, the problem being that there were so many checkpoints between
the city and the airport that it was becoming very difficult for the ‘refugees’
to make their way. This was compounded by the security teams manning these
checkpoints ‘confiscating’ their money, passports and anything else which they
took a fancy to, along with systematically beating them. We were then advised
that it would be many more hours before any more of our passengers would be in
a position to board our aircraft.
We were advised that these seventy passengers would be
removed from the airport if they did not board immediately, now I didn’t want
to board them, as we were advised that it would be unacceptable to fly to
Tripoli and then only return to Baghdad with seventy passengers, it would have
been a political public relations disaster.
However, I didn’t want to lose those that we had, as there were many
families with children. So a group decision was made to board them and wait as
long as we could.
After three hours on the ground and all extensions to our
insurance running out, we had to leave and with the option of returning to
Baghdad being an unfavourable one, and a guarantee from the Iraqi Embassy staff
that our remaining passengers plus the seventy we already had would be ready to
depart the following day; I decided to offload those already on-board and
depart for Tunis which was only an hour away. There we could come up with our
next plan, and buy us some more time.
The decision to fly to Tunis was made as we were very
fortunate that our senior cabin crew member was from Tunis and who had friends
at the airport there, and it was through him and my UK boss that we were able
to organise our over flight permissions of Tunisia and our landing permit into
Tunis, again it’s who you know in this business! So with the very understanding
passengers disembarked and the aircraft pre-flight checks all completed we
started our engines for a departure to Tunis’s Carthage International Airport.
Although the westerly runway was favoured by the surface
wind, the entry onto this runway had been destroyed so a back-track followed by
a 180 degree turn at the poorly lit runway’s end would be required to take off
in a westerly direction. It was now dark, and not wishing to take any undue
risks Marty and I decided that it would be prudent to accept a ten knot
tailwind and depart using the full length available on the easterly runway.
After an uneventful take-off we were cleared by Libyan air
traffic control to fly direct to our exit point on the Libyan-Tunisian border
However, this would mean flying over the town of Zawarah a coastal town west of
Tripoli which we had earlier been advised by Iraqi embassy personnel was
experiencing hostile actions. Instead we decided on a northerly track between
the eastern edge of Tripoli and the quaintly named town of Castelverde; so keeping
us clear of Zawarah.
Climbing to our cruise altitude of 38,000 feet only took
fifteen minutes, and being handed over to Tunisian air traffic control west of
the island of Djerba, we were cleared direct to a waypoint named Zahra which
was the initial approach fix for the arrival routing into Carthage airport when
using the ten thousand feet long runway 01.
A normal landing using just idle reverse and no autobrakes
ensued. We customarily tried to use as little reverse thrust as necessary to
minimise engine ware and foreign objects damage, accompanied with minimal
braking to reduce brake and tyre ware too. Our preference was to use the
available runway length whenever possible and so reducing our maintenance costs
as much as possible; with only one Boeing 747-400 in our company we had little
flexibility during unscheduled maintenance.
We planned to stay on the ground in Tunis for around sixteen
hours, taking rest in the hotel and coming up with an alternative plan of
action. During this ground time the necessary landing and over-flight permits
were obtained, Tunisian handling bills paid by a member of the Iraqi embassy in
Tunis, and the aircraft was re-catered…most important!
The subsequent flight to Tripoli was uneventful. There were
210 passengers waiting for us on arrival, and after spending the last of my
dollars and donating all the catering which we could spare to the extremely
grateful ground staff, we closed our doors and set off for home, well Baghdad
anyway.
A great adventure and very rewarding that we had removed so
many families from harm’s way; however, it’s a question of ‘the devil you know’
I suppose. Tripoli or Baghdad, as we say Hobson’s choice I suppose. Although a
year on, it seems that Tripoli is actually a safer proposition than Baghdad.
I’m no longer involved with the Boeing 747-400 operation in
Baghdad; instead I have secured a fantastic contract flying the Boeing 747-400
for Silkways in Azerbaijan; yet another fabulous
adventure flying freight to destinations as diverse as Hong
Kong, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan China and Europe.
I consider myself to be very lucky.
If you would like to fly with Alan on the Boeing 737,747,777
or Airbus 320/340, then you can contact him at info@simuflyltd.com
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