US fighter pilots navigating crowded airspace in Iraq
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writer
ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN - U.S. pilots flying missions over Iraq come to the region expecting a host of challenges, including swirling sandstorms and urban battlefields filled with a mix of enemies and civilians.
.
But Naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman said one of the newest difficulties has been the least expected: navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world’s fastest airline growth in recent years.
Radar operators work in the radar room at Qatar International Airport, in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, March 19, 2003. Naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman said one of the newest difficulties has been the least expected: navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world’s fastest airline growth in recent years. The mix of U.S. combat aircraft and civilian planes from booming Gulf airlines illustrates the growing divide in the Middle East between countries like Iraq and Lebanon mired in political and sectarian conflict and oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar enjoying windfall revenue and surging investment.(AP Photo/Steven Senne, FILE)
The mix of U.S. combat aircraft and civilian planes from booming Gulf airlines illustrates the growing divide in the Middle East between countries like Iraq and Lebanon, which are mired in political and sectarian conflict, and oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar enjoying a windfall revenue and surging investment.
Cmdr. Bill Sigler, head of an F/A-18 fighter jet squadron on the USS Truman, estimated that planes flying off the carrier headed north over the Persian Gulf to Iraq were confined to one-fifth of the airspace available the last time he was in the region in 2002 because of increased airline traffic.
“You have to carve a strip out of the middle of the Gulf and that’s frequently below 15,000 feet, which for us is like confining your car to the sidewalk,” said Sigler. “It does not give us much to work with.”
USS Harry Truman preparing to refuel at sea….
The Truman’s battle group ended its Gulf deployment this week and is returning to Norfolk, Va. It was replaced by the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Civilian air traffic controllers work with U.S. pilots flying to Iraq to keep them on their designated routes, a process that has become more complicated as the number of flights has ballooned.
“Now it is a spider web of networks that crisscross the Gulf,” said Sigler.
Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080503/ap_on_re_mi_
ea/iraq_crowded_airspace;_ylt=ArnICedTyjWtQVMg
RDC9sH6s0NUE
Tags: politics, news, Iraq, air combat, air crew, Aircraft, aircraft carrier
