Britain’s shame is complete. Overnight I have been digging into the ‘technical problems’ that beset our mercy flights to collect British citizens stranded in Muammar Gaddafi’s murderous Hellhole in the desert.
I am embarrassed to report back to you.
No gunboats, no Hercules, Hague’s mercy mission rests on the ‘X’ factor.
The British government didn’t tell British Airways to get back in the air and collect its citizens – they sent for the planes piloted by Britain’s number one headbanger – Bruce Dickinson, the man who gave up warbling:
The rising dead, faces bloated, torn
They are relieved, the living wait their turn
To act as Marketing Manager and Chief Pilot on mercy flights for a little outfit called Astraeus Airlines whose previous claim to fame was that they were the only airline to operate a B757 combi passenger and cargo aircraft – mainly so that they could use the plane to fly Iron Maiden on the 2008 tour. Bruce Dickinson doubled as both lead singer and Pilot of the B757…
Ultimately owned by an Icelandic travel company, they have kept themselves airborne by specialising in flying Hajj pilgrims to and fro the Middle East. Mind you, they also fly the kids to Finland for their winter visit to ‘Santa’.
Since May of last year they have been operating a continuous schedule of behalf of the Ministry of Defence flying troops to and fro the Middle East.
It is scarcely surprising that they were late taking off from Gatwick – the latest industry figures show that 17% of their flights are ‘excessively late’, 6% ‘very late’, and 12% merely ‘late’.
Astraeus Airlines endeared themselves to our present government when they provided unmarked planes to keep ‘BA passengers flying even when its planes are not’ during the recent strike action by BA cabin staff. Nothing much has changed – BA stops flying to Tripoli and Astraeus steps into the breech once more. Eventually.
- and we were worried about sharing our aircraft carriers with the French!
SBML is the landlord of the Raccoon Arms. He lives North of Watford and has an eclictic range of interests from Science and Technology to Politics including Woodwork and Genealogy. His political viewpoint has evolved from being a student demonstrator to more liberal views and has now seen the light in Libertarianism.
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I don’t follow; what’s the shame?
I guess it’s the same of BA incompetence, but it’s not clear. We all know what the unions have done to that company; it’s just an illustration that someone else will step in.
Eh? … Bruce and Iron Maiden are on tour. Yesterday in Melbourne, today Sydney and tomorrow Brisbane.
They have seven planes Smoking.
Seven more than the British government seem to possess to get our people out of Libya…..
The Hercules never did get their replacements.
Maybe so but Bruce hasn’t given up warbling, he rejoined Iron Maiden in 1999. Bruce hasn’t had much time for any mercy flights either, their current World Tour began a year ago.
It’d be worth being stranded in Tripoli if you were rescued by Iron Maiden!
Hope Bruce lives up to his image. The mental picture l get is off a piolt l knew in USA, he has DC3 and it’s got a very loud music system, supply of Jack Daniels and Marlboro’s. Steve Olore is his name. The British Government should’ve sent for him. The DC3 has a reputation for mercy/rescue flights … Berlin being the most famous. DC3 is more commonly known as the Dakota.
Oop’s … #pilot# #of#
It’s a shame they sold the Navy off. Otherwise we could send an aircraft carrier or two.
What happened to our arm, navy, airforce during the Labour years has no bearing on handling the situation in Libya. We’re not going there to fight them. What we need is means of getting British citizens back to Blighty. What we use doesn’t matter, but it’s how we do it that does.
Getting our finger out, cajoling businesses to lend a hand, paying above market rates to charter aircraft, etc is what we should be doing. Saying things like “we won’t bribe Libyian officials” so that our planes or ships can land/dock is being a bit precious.
It’s not that the end justifies the means as realising that in real life sometimes difficult decisions need to be made. Just like cuddling up with Gaddafi in times when he looked and acted OK even though it doesn’t look nice now (cf. Sadam in Iraq, or the Shah in Iran, etc. etc).
Netherlands got their people out, but they only have around a couple hundred. Germany a few more but easily handled in a few planes. Britain has a few thousand so a bit more of a logistical issue, but not insurmountable. I mean Turkey has tens of thousands and they’ve sent ships and got their people out ahead of us. Now that is embarrassing.
Interesting little blog (mainly on Astraeus), if a bit weirdly dated. As Smoking says, Dickinson won’t be doing any rescue flights, he’s at work with his band in the Far East at the moment. When he is not working with the band, he flies nearly full time, as the band only tours part of the year, and not every year. He doesn’t fly the tour plane by himself, they carry 4-6 pilots depending on how far they are going. Who was late taking off from Gatwick when?? Old pilots with Jack Daniels and the famous Dakotas sound great, but these days airliners are used, they are bigger, and their pilots fly commercial licence rules … probably safer for everyone, and uses less string. Glad to hear it if Astraeus are providing backup services to the Government. They were doing this long before Dickinson became marketing director, he flies as an ordinary Captain with them. He doesn’t warble, he is the “air raid siren” and has been for decades
I completely disagree with you SadButMadLad. Our armed forces are those with the expertise in a situation such as this and it is extremely important that such specialist skills are always available so as we, as a bunch of islands, can protect our own.
Our military aren’t only trained to fight you know. They have far wider skills than using a weapon. Thankfully.
The FO has left it far too late. Civilians won’t want to go into such a situation because they know they’re not capable of coping should something untoward happen and that is very likely. That’s why the government couldn’t just call on some of their pals such as Richard Branson and co.
I wasn’t talking about the actual soldiers who quite rightly can do more than just shoot guns. However the specialist skills that are required are more the management and logistical ones in organising the evacuation. That doesn’t require all the warplanes and destroyers, it requires planes or ships be they military or commercial.
Surprisingly it doesn’t require only miltary personnel to do the evacuation. It’s not like each evacuee needs to be protected by a soldier as they get to the airport/port. They are getting their own their own so its only the mass evacuation part that is required. Civilians and commercial companies can easily do it. Yes, there is a lot of violence going on but there are still many flights going in and out of Tripoli. There are other airports/airfields. Look at how other countries are coping.
Where the skills have been seriously lacking is in the FO. It has always been a department that doesn’t understand what is going in the world.
I think people are being a bit unfair on the Government, they have no idea what it is like in that sort of situation. My late husband and I were in Teheran until Feb. 1979 and it was chaos with so many trying to get out, and the UK was behind the curve then too. We were very lucky in that my husband worked for an American Co. and, as there was a large military base and airport, and they evacuated us from there in a huge C5 carrier. The most frightening thing was the drive to the airport, we had an Iranian ‘military escort’ who deserted the buses halfway there. People were standing on the road shouting death to America and it would only have taken one person to start throwing rocks, there were plenty there. I cannot fault the American evacuation to Greece, they were really well organized even down to having vets at the airport and cash available. Certainly they had a lot more time as it took a few months to fall apart whereas Libya seemed to collapse very quickly. Things are never as simple as they look and I really wonder how they are going to get to the oil workers in the desert. From what I remember those evacuated by BA had a much harder time, having to use the main airport which was totally chaotic, just like Libya now.
I can’t see the problem here. The Government needed to charter/wet lease some aircraft, presumably this lot offered the best price. They have all the relevant flying licences, seem to have a lot of well known clients (e.g. various football clubs) so why not use them. The better question to be asking the FCO is whether the contract with Astraeus for this airlift included some clawback in the event of poor on-time performance.
For reference, here’s a list of all UK airlines – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Airlines_of_the_United_Kingdom
as we don’t have a flag carrier, surely any would be suitable?
Or is this just an amusing story about how the company they’ve gone with happen to employ a famous singer as a pilot?
Interesting comments, carol42 relates how employment by a US company is probably better for your longevity than a british passport.
Of course the apologiser-in-chief (formerly PM Camoron) assures all and sundry here
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-apologises-for-libya-rescue-delays-2224310.html
that “lessons have been learned” well thats OK then, pretty much the same as Heathrow snow clearing if I remember correctly. He seems to feel that you should be very sorry for him because he has taken on a job “that is extremely difficult” ye gods! Also as leader of the government (although there seems to be some doubt about that too) “I don’t understand why they weren’t operating through Cobra to secure the support of the RAF at an earlier stage. ” So we are left to believe that “they” (hey I thought he was in charge, and could dial it in on his Blackberry) are incompetent duds, and for once I agree with the Camoron. Here I agree with sadbutmadlad the foreign office is useless and the RAF incapable of independent action.
So we had better rely on another arm of the armed services-the one celebrated for surrendering to Iran at the slightest hint of a fight, once again the once invincible and proud royal navy covers itself in glory
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/britons-return-home-telling-of-libya-chaos-2224187.html
I quote:”HMS Cumberland’s departure from Libya will be delayed because of choppy waters, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said.
The Type 22 frigate docked in the Arab country’s second city earlier today to evacuate scores of Britons to the Maltese port of Valetta.
But its voyage has been delayed because of tricky sea conditions.
Mr Burt told Sky News: “The Cumberland has already docked, it’s taking passengers on. They won’t be going straight away because the sea conditions aren’t very nice.”
Diddums-”the sea conditions aren’t very nice.” is this an effing emergency evacuation or a daytrip from Southend pier?
A further eyewitnesses reports”Chinooks flew over our house and there were machine gun blasts shortly afterwards.” of course they were not british chinooks because we know they are neatly stored in heated splendour while they await a british designed software system. Go-orn yer pulling my leg-no sir.
And to top it all off the Camoron cabinet have now co-ordinated press releases from the culture secretary’s office, he assures us that the SAS are ready to be deployed. Somehow that announcement from somebody whose briefings usually mention the royal opera house or the national ballet seems calibrated not to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies.
In case anybody has forgotten how to run a country without it looking like a Keystone cops movie let me leave you with this.
http://instapunk.com/images/Lockerbie-bomber-Abdelbas-002.jpg
Do you see that, that is how a third-world country operates, it sends a nice, modern, shiny effing plane to pick up its stranded civilians (singular in this case)
If the camoron does not demand the immediate resignation of the foreign secretary, minister of defence and minister culture on his return he is a bigger fool than I take him for (impossible surely) followed by a 75% cut in air marshalls, commodores and admirals and a 100%in all military procurement staff give the job of renewing the naval fleet to RNLI, buy all future aircraft through the US from existing proven models.
The military don’t just do logistics and management SBML. They rescue people because they’re the professionals. Our SAS – or what’s left of it – is the best in the world.
I agree until now it didn’t require military personnel to evacuate British citizens but it developments in the past 24 hours are putting the lives of oil workers in the desert at risk because they can’t get to the airport or port. Who can get them their now their employers say it’s impossible? Only our military are left so they will be asked to do it.
Let’s look at this objectively. Many Brits go to the likes of Libya to work because they’re paid far more handsomely there than they would be here and that goes for oil workers too. They go for the money. Most Brits have woken up and realised they have to get out and because civilian air flights were erratic many have been stuck at the airport. Most oil companies took the majority of their workers out a week ago yet left some in the desert to keep the stuff flowing. Last weekend most countries became aware of their citizens stuck at the airport so supplied aircraft to take them to their country of residence. Britain didn’t. Is it any wonder why they didn’t when Cameron is floating about on a PR stint in the Middle East while Nick Clegg is allegedly at his holiday home in Switzerland saying he possibly is running the country and it can all be done by blackberry and email?
The situation is now very serious and the British have to be brought out asap. That will have to be done by our military because no civilian company would touch it with a bargepole. For a start they wouldn’t get insurance.
Other countries have used their armed forces quietly and brought their own out. Unfortunately, because we have leaders who don’t have a damned clue about anything other than money, we’re way behind by our non-action. I just hope none of our military is killed because of it.
Speedy decisions are essential. Similar to Carol 42 I was in Tehran at the end of 1978 and left by BA in January ’79. Their flights were coming in and leaving without local air traffic control, i.e. on visual flight rules (but possibly breaking some company rules?) and local BA groundstaff – many Iranian – were extremely helpful. BA had quickly organized evacuation flights via Kuwait, meaning that extra aircraft and aircrews were needed. Of course 30 years is a long time and more than enough for degeneration to set in.
Hi Mike, as I recall it wasn’t as bad at the end of 78, I had quite a few friends who had children leaving then but I opted to stay with my husband. We actually went to Turkey for a week in Dec.78 and still thought it might settle down as it seemed to be heading for some sort of democracy with Khomeni as a benevolent religious figure – we all know how that turned out! watching the demonstrations in Egypt brought it all back. The Iranian revolution was very similar, students, middle class etc. and they certainly didn’t want the theocracy they got. We loved Iran and always hoped to go back one day, being forced to leave always felt like unfinished business, sadly my husband died four years ago so that won’t happen now. I think we were the only Brits on our evacuation, most had left by then. A few people we knew that had to get out after 11th. Feb. said it was a nightmare and some literally got out with what they were wearing. That was when any sense of law and order collapsed, I agree the Iranian people were great and very helpful when things got rough, my neighbour took me shopping so she could do all the talking. I got caught up in a demonstration once and was rescued by another Iranian girl who spoke English, we got an orange cab and they were all shouting ‘death to the Shah’ and I had to join in! it was quite an experience.
“Saying things like “we won’t bribe Libyian officials” so that our planes or ships can land/dock is being a bit precious.”
Au contraire, one must comply with the anti-bribery legislation introduced by New Labour or face a jail term.