Originally Posted by
bizjets101
Just saw that in CNN World news - reporting a Su-22 crew bailed out rather than perform orders to bomb the city of Benghazi.
Aircraft crashed west of the city of Ijdabiya, 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Benghazi,
Ajdabiya is 143km (80nm) due south of Benghazi and 422 SE of Malta. That is inside the range of an Su-22 but it depends on their nav kit if they wanted to risk such a long crossing. Also after the previous defection they may have been under-fuelled.
There is a 4000 ft strip there which looks to be a sand runway.
Benghazi looks interesting. The HAS site appears unused although each appears to have a fence around the front of each HAS. The concrete is pristine except where there is a number of wheel tracks where vehicles appear to have been doing high-speed turns. The main apron OTOH appears to have 5 Fencer but there are also some 7 ac that look like Transall. The Su-24 look interesting as Wikipedia says they have 4, one lost in a fire.
The Google imagery is 2009. Interestingly the 2004 imagery shows the same number of transports in exactly the same spots. There are no fences (or wheel marks) around the HAS in 2004.
edited to add:
Given that Gaddaffi control is in the west of the country it is possible the Fitter was launched from Tripoli. The crash site was about 360nm from Tripoli and Benghazi is also 360nm from Tripoli. It would suggest that they had insufficient fuel to fly to Benghazi and then Malta. Maybe they banged out near their home city.