Flap 62..you are a legend
I have bitten my tongue through this thread but now that I have lost four pints of blood I think its worth saying something.
I am Ex Somalia...yes "Blackhawk Down" vintage, ex military (obviously) and now working the Afghan operation from an "Arabian" location, but not American.
I will not go too far with this just yet, but having witnessed, logged and officially monitered reports of an average of 2 incidents a week involving US forces (typically USN/USAF, US National Guard and reserve elements) in the Afghan operation and I have to say that its a nice theory "we are supplying 90% of the assets therefore statistically it is inevitable that the US assets will be involved in more incidents" .....this logic is absolute tripe.
The incidents we have almost on a daily basis with the US assets are serious (life threatening in a number of cases) and yet stem from the most basic and fundamental avaition errors that come about through pure arrogance and naivity to international conventions and operations.
When you are ready to take me to task on this issue have your facts ready, as only last night a US KC135 under civil radar control returning from the tactical area missed a USN Hawkey (ironically the eyes of the fleet, and not in contact with the US operational controllers of the adjacent tactical entry point for the Afghan operation) by less than seeing eye distance. This is military on miltary and who cares you might say, more concerning is the Diego Garcia (Bomber and Refueller) recoveries who cross all civil airways at 90 degrees out, non- standard levels and not talking to any civil or respectable military agencies and who have averaged an air miss with civil traffic every 2 and a half days or so. Any regular operator through the busy middle eastern air space will be familiar with this situation.....
Looking forward to taking people to who want to take me to task on this issue and if the responses are only concerned with my spelling errors forget it I know I am bad at engrish.
"Traffic...1 O'clock, 3 miles, tracking left to right, same level.....no threat."
