Ariana Afghan Airlines

[reverserdeployed]

Saw a picture in the Daily Mail yesterday of Kabul Airport after the departure of the Taliban.

3 727's were pictured in various states of destruction, some looked to have engines missing. When did Ariana cease flying?

Was Ariana's fleet bombed by the US to prevent the Taliban escaping by air or were all the aircraft knackered anyway?

This is quite interesting considering the internet was banned under the Taliban www.arianaairlines.com (http://www.arinaairlines.com)

[ 16 November 2001: Message edited by: reverserdeployed ]

[le loup garou]

Have they definately ceased trading or do you think they may give me a job. :D

Regards le loup garou

[Orangewing]

There was a very interesting and highly amusing article about Ariana, and an interview with its chief pilot, in todays (20th Nov) Independent. Well worth a read if you can get hold of a copy! (can't reprint it 'cos I left mine on the F/D). :D :D

[WeatherJinx]

Orangewing

Here it is: (Independent, 20 Nov)

How bin Laden commandeered a state airline for the private use of his terrorist network
By Peter Popham in Kabul

Osama bin Laden hijacked the services of Afghanistan's national carrier, Ariana, to support his al-Qa'ida terror network, it has been revealed.

Mr bin Laden in effect ran his own private airforce, commandeering the services of the airline to service the transport needs of al-Qa'ida. Equipped with airline uniforms and fake Ariana documentation, al-Qa'ida operatives could get into any airport the airline flew to.

Al-Qa'ida members posed as pilots, mechanics or flight attendants as they travelled in and out of Afghanistan. And the airline ferried not just militants, but drugs and weapons.

Long before al-Qa'ida's volunteers enrolled in flight training schools in Florida, the theme was set. As a child, Mr bin Laden was exposed to both the glamour and potential horror of jet flight: his father, the construction tycoon, Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, was the first Saudi permitted by King Faisal to buy his own plane, a twin-engine Beechcraft. In 1967, he died in a airplane crash.

While still based in Sudan, in the early 1990s, Mr bin Laden acquired an ex-US airforce jet, a T-39 Sabreliner, for his personal use, according to Essam al-Ridi, the Egyptian pilot who delivered it to him in Khartoum in January 1993 and who testified to that effect before a US federal court in 1998.

But Mr bin Laden's passion for flying reached its apotheosis when he acquired his own national carrier. Ariana Afghan Airlines is not in the same league as British Airways or even Pakistan International Airlines. Before 11 September, it owned three Boeing 727s and five Antonov 24s in working order – all very old aircraft.

By the time the Taliban slipped out of Kabul last week, the entire fleet had been destroyed by American bombs, with the possible exception of a 727 at an airfield near Herat

But as a national carrier Ariana had a proud past and some 1,500 employees. When the Taliban seized Kabul in September 1996, they replaced the airline's top officials on the first day – from the president down – with their own people.

From that point on Ariana was in the town's pockets – which meant, given the demanding requirements of the Taliban's guest and good friend, that it belonged equally to Osama bin Laden.

Yesterday, the carrier's chief pilot, Sayed Navi Hashimi, 54, revealed to The Independent in detail how Ariana was used to ferry weapons, equipment and foreign militants from the Gulf to training camps in Afghanistan. In its hey-day, when Mr Hashimi first joined, Ariana flew from Kabul to cities across Europe and Central Asia. "Ariana was the best airline in the region,'' he said.

When the Taliban took over, scheduled passenger services were cut back – but cargo flights to the Gulf, and particularly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – one of the only two states to recognise the Taliban regime – expanded. "Every week there were 14 or 15 cargo flights to Sharjah in the UAE,'' said Mr Hashimi. "Most of them were normal flights, bringing TVs, radios, other electrical equipment and cigarettes from the Emirates to Afghanistan.'' These passed duty-free into Afghanistan and were then smuggled into Pakistan and sold at huge illicit markets there.

"But sometimes we were bringing other things ... We had a station manager at Sharjah who was a mullah and had a lot of connections with some sheikhs. We flew to Sharjah and took on cargo in big heavy wooden crates. It is not a pilot's responsibility to know what is inside the cargo he is carrying, but they looked like boxes in which weapons and ammunition are carried. We also took on tyres for helicopters, jet oil and spare engine parts.

"All our flights were overnight. We went off for rest and when we came back the aircraft was already loaded. When we landed at Kandahar, the plane was taken over to the military side of the airport for unloading.'' As Ariana's commercial passenger schedule came close to collapsing under the pressure of ferrying cargo around the region at short notice, Ariana began flying al-Qa'ida militants in and out of Afghanistan. "We brought all nationalities from the Gulf to Afghanistan; Chechens, Arabs and others,'' Mr Hashimi said.

Many al-Qa'ida operatives also travelled around the region dressed in Ariana uniform. "It was very simple,'' Mr Hashimi said. "In the Emirates you needed only the uniform and a form called a General Declaration, which could easily be duplicated. Sometimes they only wanted to see the Ariana ID card – a very simple card, easy to fake. Ariana gave a lot of people these false ID cards. People would come on board wearing the uniform – you'd say: "Who's he?'' and they'd say "Oh, he's a friend of the minister''. What could you do? We would put his name on the General Declaration. Sometimes we flew with 10 crew, sometimes 27.''

This efficient, well oiled transportation machine served al-Qa'ida loyally for two years, according to Mr Hashimi, until UN sanctions last year barred Ariana from flying out of Afghanistan. After that, Mr bin Laden apparently turned to other charter services flying out of Sharjah for his needs.

But, according to Sayed Hashimi, Mr bin Laden's most extravagant use of Ariana occurred even before the Taliban arrived in Kabul.

"This was the mujahedin time,'' he recalls, before the Taliban. Some Sudanese men came to the office and went up and down saying they wanted to charter a plane. They wanted to fly to and from Khartoum. I was the captain of this charter – it was a new destination and every pilot wanted it because there was extra money, but I got it.''

The flight turned into an epic because it involved over- flying Saudi Arabia, but the Sudanese clients failed to produce permission from the Saudis until the last minute. "We went to Khartoum finally and the Sudanese said, 'the cargo is not ready yet, wait'. They put 79 seats on the plane then told me they wanted to put on about 90 passengers. I said, without seats I wouldn't take them, though somehow they found the extra seats and fitted them. Then they filled up the hold with all their possessions, clothes, mattresses, three-wheeler rickshaws, old motorcycles, everything. And the plane filled up with men in robes, women in burqas, and lots of children.

"We were stuck at Khartoum for three or four days waiting again for the Saudis to give us permission to over-fly. Finally we got it and flew to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan arriving early in the morning and although the passengers and their possessions were so shabby, a lot of high-ranking people came to receive them at the airport in seven or eight big cars, chiefs including Haji Abdul Qadir," he said.

"I thought it was strange at the time, then a few days later I realised: This was the families and the bodyguards of Mr bin Laden. Perhaps he was among them too, I don't know.''

In February last year, an Ariana airliner was at the centre of a dramatic international hijack drama when it was taken over during an internal flight and flown to Stansted airport.

Ariana's present state makes the rest of the world's airlines look prosperous. The company's website carries the warning: "Due to current crises in our beloved country Afghanistan, we are receiving unconfirmed reports that Ariana may have lost all of its aircraft."

WxJx ;)

[DCDriver]

Ariana operated a DC10 in the early 80's. The story goes that it was struck by a SAM on the no 3 eng pylon (presumably while parked!). This a/c later went to BCAL as G-MULL and the pylon repair was allegedly still visible, altho' I never saw it myself.
DCD

[Drop and Stop]

Try: http://www.arianaairlines.com/

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

An Ariana 727 crashed at Gatwick during the sixties, attempting an approach in conditions which were considerably worse than Cat I. In addition to the people on the aircraft, I think some people in the house it struck were killed as well. It was the findings from this accident which brought in the Approach Ban in the UK.
On a different topic, the 2 NDB Rwy 29 procedure for Kabul looks interesting. Not as sporty as some places, but interesting enough in a 727-200, let alone a DC-10! Max IAS 150 kt below FL150 and minimum bank angle of 25º in the racetrack pattern.

[GlueBall]

And it won't be long now before American taxpayers will be made to buy and to pay for Ariana's next generation jets.

[DCDriver]

Don't you mean us Brits?? With our wannabee "President-of-the World" and his muesli-eating, Guardian-reading pinkos at the helm of our fair land, anyone earning more than the national average wage will have to cough up!
Except members of the cabinet of course.... :( :( :(