Apple haters

[Peter Korsten]

Op 22-3-2011 13:50, K9 Kai Niggemann schreef:

> On 19.03.2011, at 13:35, Peter Korsten wrote:
>
>> By the way, just heard a jet aircraft (not a fighter, I think) high
>> overhead, and no arrivals or departures from the airport that I could
>> match it to.
>>
>> Probably nothing. :)
>
> AWACS?

It could well be. Malta is officially neutral, and hasn't offered its 
facilities to the allied forces.

Having said that, there isn't much to offer. The airport runway is 
amazing for such a small country, and I think it's only an Antonov 
An-225 that hasn't (yet?) landed here, but B-52, 747 (couple of weeks 
ago there were three on the tarmac, which is rather unusual), An-124 and 
now the A380, they all have landed here. But there are no facilities for 
military aircraft, so it'd be a bit useless anyway.

What is happening, though, is that the control tower communicates with, 
indeed, AWACS, and the other day, Al Jazeera played a tape of a 
communication between an AWACS and the Maltese, where the AWACS wanted 
to know details of a certain flight that happened to be the private jet 
of one of the Gaddafi family.

My expectation is that, once the combat phase is over (may it be soon) 
and the humanitarian effort starts, Malta will come into the picture 
again, at least until Tripoli airport can be used.

- Peter