Visitors flying to Baghdad must make quick descent (in F-28)
Visitors flying to Baghdad must make quick descent
By PATRICK MARTIN
UPDATED AT 6:47 AM EDT Monday, Jul 5, 2004
BAGHDAD -- Fight and flight
You won't find Flight 816 on any published airline schedule. The Royal Jordanian flight is one of two that flies every day from Amman to Baghdad and quickly back. Manned by a special South African crew with experience in many of the world's hot spots, the 25-year-old twin-engine Fokker 28 has the ability to climb and descend rapidly.
Its arrival at Baghdad International Airport is more like a carnival ride than a conventional landing. It starts its descent from 22,000 feet directly over the airport, beginning in a steep downward counterclockwise spiral, then banking right and reversing spiral, then left and reversing again. It makes a remarkably smooth landing before you know it -- although your stomach arrives a few minutes later. It takes off in much the same manner.
Are such security precautions really necessary? It seems so. A U.S. C-130 cargo plane taking off last weekend in a more conventional departure came under small-arms fire. One of the passengers was hit and died.