Routing Wildenrath - Pardubice 1989.
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Routing Wildenrath - Pardubice 1989.
Before the end of the communist regimes at the end of 1989 in the GDR and Czechoslovakia, what would have been the a/c routing for an RAF transport Andover from Wildenrath West Germany to Pardubice (PED) in Czechoslovakia (now Czechia).? Would the flight required flying over the GDR ?
Lance Shippey
Lance Shippey
Before the end of the communist regimes at the end of 1989 in the GDR and Czechoslovakia, what would have been the a/c routing for an RAF transport Andover from Wildenrath West Germany to Pardubice (PED) in Czechoslovakia (now Czechia).? Would the flight required flying over the GDR ?
Lance Shippey
Lance Shippey
FB
GDR airspace (and its associated administrative/diplomatic hassles) could easily have been avoided by routing southeast towards Schweinfurt and then east to enter Czechoslovakia at the (then) Cheb air gate, continuing past Prague to Pardubice.
Cheb was where west German flights were routed, like the first Lufthansa flights to Leipzig in 1989 or Interflug A310 delivery flights from Toulouse. The RAF would have been free to cross the inner German border but only to support the Berlin garrison. Going to the CSSR would have required some special permit south of the Berlin control zone to the CSSR border.
East German nav charts from the old days:
https://konbriefing.com/mad/approach...airfields.html
East German nav charts from the old days:
https://konbriefing.com/mad/approach...airfields.html
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Lass Hair, vzlet, Finningley Boy, Thank you.
pax Britanica. Yes, I do know what they made there. Movement reports from RAF Wildenrath note that an Andover of 60 sqn made a return flight to Czechoslovakia put pick up a consignment of Semtex explosives, which was to be flown to Britain for tests, This was after Pan Am flight PA103 N739PA was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerby on 21st December 1988. Authority for the flight was given by Vaclac Havel. Although the Czechs had stopped supplying Libya and Gaddafi with the explosive, orders to East Germany and Hungary continued for some time.. Pardubice lies on the Labe river (Czech) which changes its name to the Elbe at the border near Bad Schandau with the GDR. and via Dresden to the border with what was West Germany. The Movement report does not mention by name Pardubice, but the factory in Czechoslovakia.
Lance Shippey
pax Britanica. Yes, I do know what they made there. Movement reports from RAF Wildenrath note that an Andover of 60 sqn made a return flight to Czechoslovakia put pick up a consignment of Semtex explosives, which was to be flown to Britain for tests, This was after Pan Am flight PA103 N739PA was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerby on 21st December 1988. Authority for the flight was given by Vaclac Havel. Although the Czechs had stopped supplying Libya and Gaddafi with the explosive, orders to East Germany and Hungary continued for some time.. Pardubice lies on the Labe river (Czech) which changes its name to the Elbe at the border near Bad Schandau with the GDR. and via Dresden to the border with what was West Germany. The Movement report does not mention by name Pardubice, but the factory in Czechoslovakia.
Lance Shippey
Last edited by Lance Shippey; 5th Mar 2023 at 15:14.
Agree with Vzlet and lessH , From Wildenrath easily Airways avoiding E. Germany to enter Czech. at Cheb .
Do the military have to have MUN [ munitions of war ] certificates ? As civis do when carrying arms , explosives ; such as our Caledonian Tristar doing Split to Bruggen with QRHs carrying their small arms and mortars . And depending on what was carried , routing had to avoid large centres of population .
FR24 a few days ago saw a KC135 from Tirana to MLD routing completely over the sea , down Adriatic , along the Med. through Straits of Gib , out to the Ocean , North to join UK from Cornwall avoiding London to Suffolk . Wonder what they were carrying ?
gds condor .
Do the military have to have MUN [ munitions of war ] certificates ? As civis do when carrying arms , explosives ; such as our Caledonian Tristar doing Split to Bruggen with QRHs carrying their small arms and mortars . And depending on what was carried , routing had to avoid large centres of population .
FR24 a few days ago saw a KC135 from Tirana to MLD routing completely over the sea , down Adriatic , along the Med. through Straits of Gib , out to the Ocean , North to join UK from Cornwall avoiding London to Suffolk . Wonder what they were carrying ?
gds condor .
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condor17 Thanks for this. I have just found the copy of the Squadron 60 movement report compiled at Wildenrath for October 1989. it includes "Operations" chapter 4. "a flight to Prague,Czechoslovakia, in order to acquire some pure Semtex explosive on which MOD were to perform tests." So its appears that the flight was to PRG rather than PED, but I guess the same entry to Czechoslovakia would have been the Cheb air gate.
Lance Shippey
Lance Shippey
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Dear Miniunddiplomat.
Interesting that you bring his up. Yes, The grounds of the West German embassy in Prague was being filled with East Germans claiming asylum. It wasn't until the intervention of the East German lawyer Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Vogel that special trains were allowed the transit East Germany, via Bad Schandau after the East Germans had agreed to release the many many East Germans via rail through Eat German to West Germany without the train stopping.. It is also interesting that the compiling officer for the Wildendrath movements for October 1989 was Flight Lieutenant G A F Dodson. This was the same person reported that he had flown Willy Brandt from Cologne to Berlin on the 10th. November 1989, a day after the Berlin wall had fallen. (See my tread" Willy |Brandt flight to Berlin" on ppRune ) Capt Dodson wrote that he had flown him back on the 10th Nov. However Willy Brandt was at a meeting at the Albrecht Hotel in East Berlin that evening, and stayed at the Steigenberger Hotel on Los Angeles Platzt on the night of the 10th November 1989, and flew home by "Commercal flight to CGN on the 11th November.
I wonder if the general exportation of Semtex would have been from Pardubice via the River and into East Germany at Bad Schandau. Putin was an officer in Dresden for the KGB, and also an officer in the Stasi at this time, and said to have made frequent visits to Sachsen Switzerland (Bad Schandau) at weekend to go hiking, as had developed a "Beer Belly" whilst serving in Dresden. (One of Putin's daughters was born in Dresden).
Lance Shippey
Interesting that you bring his up. Yes, The grounds of the West German embassy in Prague was being filled with East Germans claiming asylum. It wasn't until the intervention of the East German lawyer Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Vogel that special trains were allowed the transit East Germany, via Bad Schandau after the East Germans had agreed to release the many many East Germans via rail through Eat German to West Germany without the train stopping.. It is also interesting that the compiling officer for the Wildendrath movements for October 1989 was Flight Lieutenant G A F Dodson. This was the same person reported that he had flown Willy Brandt from Cologne to Berlin on the 10th. November 1989, a day after the Berlin wall had fallen. (See my tread" Willy |Brandt flight to Berlin" on ppRune ) Capt Dodson wrote that he had flown him back on the 10th Nov. However Willy Brandt was at a meeting at the Albrecht Hotel in East Berlin that evening, and stayed at the Steigenberger Hotel on Los Angeles Platzt on the night of the 10th November 1989, and flew home by "Commercal flight to CGN on the 11th November.
I wonder if the general exportation of Semtex would have been from Pardubice via the River and into East Germany at Bad Schandau. Putin was an officer in Dresden for the KGB, and also an officer in the Stasi at this time, and said to have made frequent visits to Sachsen Switzerland (Bad Schandau) at weekend to go hiking, as had developed a "Beer Belly" whilst serving in Dresden. (One of Putin's daughters was born in Dresden).
Lance Shippey
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condor17. Very Interesting re the KC135 you noted. , One is curious of the amount of Albanian turning up on the shores of South Eastern Britain..
Lance Shippey
Lance Shippey
I noticed that too ... it was on the day of the French ATC strike, so they fully avoided that airspace.
