Aussie eyes on Baghdad skies

Tower supervisor Flight Lieutenant Charles Robinson oversees aircraft operations at Baghdad International Airport. Flying Officer Paul Lummis (seated) works as the tower controller with Flight Lieutenant Grant Stuchbury (rear) monitoring aircraft ground movements. Photo by CPL Darren Hilder

Squadron Leader Stephen Edgeley on the tower balcony.

By CAPT Phil Pyke

Running the air traffic control at an international airport is busy enough at the best of times.
But when that airport is in what was a war zone, the challenges are certainly even greater.
With the arrival in Baghdad of Royal Australian Air Force air traffic controllers, the skies over the city have come under Australian control.

The busy first week of operations included a Chinook helicopter crash and a visit by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Operational flight commander Squadron Leader Stephen Edgeley said our contingent had taken over full tower operations from the USAF.

“The airfield is similar in size to Melbourne Airport. This includes a very large civilian infrastructure such as the former Saddam International Airport terminal,” SQNLDR Edgeley said.

Baghdad International Airport has a 13000ft runway for civilian air traffic and an 11000ft runway for military aircraft. The 11000ft runway is still unusable, with bomb damage repairs not yet complete.

The air traffic controllers are working on visual procedures while they await the installation of navigational radar. All communications to aircraft is through Australian radio systems.

The amount of military traffic makes for busy days. When Mr Rumsfeld landed, a fleet of nine aircraft accompanied him.
More recently, the controllers coordinated a search and rescue effort after a RAF Chinook crashed some distance to the south of the city. The crew and passengers were all recovered safely. The Chinook was refitted with a new engine and was back flying three days later.

The air traffic controllers are monitoring and coordinating about 450 helicopter and 55 fixed wing movements a day. It is busier than many Australian airports.

They also have the opportunity to mix with the locals, as original airport workers return to rebuild the electrical, air conditioning and communications systems.

SQNLDR Edgeley said the region reminded him of his service in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the early 1990s. “The area is similar because of the style of air traffic control on a secure airfield, with an insecure city around it,” he said.

It is a commanding 360-degree view from the 13-storey tower, with three of Saddam Hussein’s palaces and the skyline of Baghdad in the distance. Black smoke, from unknown fires in the city, plumes into the otherwise clear sky.

During their first week at the airport, tracer fire and flares were often seen in the night sky – a reminder of the volatile environment.

“We have seen numerous large explosions and tracer from a tribal fight in the distance.”

Despite the outside danger, the flat, dusty, featureless landscape reminds the air traffic controllers of home. “The area and landscapes are very similar to Townsville – without the mountains – during a dry winter,” SQLDR Edgeley said.

The Iraqi countryside also features eucalypts, making this foreign land seem to many Australian troops to be very much like home.

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