IIRC passengers being 'rescued' from Egypt earlier this year were being charged £300 per head per seat. Wonder what the going rate for the Libyan evacuation is.

Agreed. On TV this evening (Wednesday) the Foreign Secretary was saying
.
This didn't seem to stop the French Airforce getting two aircraft in and out Libya last night to rescue French nationals. Either our "special relationship" with Libya, negotiated by our former glorious leader, is worth diddly squat or perhaps there's a shortage of readily available UK military airlift assets?

Backbone
 

The Foreign Office is not there to be a wet nurse and one can generally expect pretty short shrift from them if one goes crawling. They are far too busy looking after "our interests abroad". Foreigners might need rescuing but we did not get to where we were a few generations ago by waiting for a hand to hold. In this business, one "makes one's own arrangements". Let's keep the backbone!

They're probably still arguing over the risk assessment.

Looks like Astraeus are involved again as there was one of their 757s (G-OJIB) descending towards Tripoli 10mins ago. Good on them!

I heard IamWally Hague saying that there were 'technical problems'. I reckon that anyone who wanted to could rustle up a couple of 747s to do an evacuation airbridge pretty quickly. And at worst they could redeploy aircraft off other routes. The excuses just don't hold water.

It appears that the Astraeus 757 was privately hired by BP to evacuate it's employees out of Libya and bring in additional FCO staff to help further evacuations. Is it me or do Astraeus always seem to end up rescuing our people...?

Good on them though - nice to see that at least one of our airlines is doing something. Why don't BA / BMI etc continue their scheduled flights but fly empty outbound to help the evacuation effort?

BA/BMI do not wish to put their crews in harms way. AEU are know for sending their aircraft/crews to weird places on the African continent. No doubt, management will be grabbing the cash with both hands.

Just hope that the crews are being paid bonuses for flying to such undesirable destinations.

What are the RAF Tristars and non tanker VC10's doing? surely they could have hired/commandeered a couple of these.

I hate to say it but MOL could have got some of his spare 737's that are sitting around Europe doing nothing to help. He could have basked in the glory and won him a few points. Or are only UK registered a/c allowed for evacuation flights?

I'm with Prober on this one.

As an expat living in an Arab country, I already have MY OWN escape plan for my family.

My wife has a credit card with about $30k free on it, and has been told what to do if I'm away and it kicks off here. Basically get to the Airport with the kids and get on the FIRST flight to ANY other country.

Although it's unlikely that anything will ever kick off in Dubai, our neighbours across the 'Persian' Gulf may have plans of their own, or I might simply run over an important Dish Dash.........!!

In any case, there are around 200,000 Brits here and there is NO WAY my family or I will be at the back of the line waiting for the FCO to dig us out. We're all adults, why don't we start taking responsibility for our own lives?:ugh:

Emercency evacuation capacity
 

Doesn't the RAF still have VC10's/Tristars which are passenger configured?. If so why were these not deployed immediately.

Astraeus has a very creditable history of operating flights for 'energy supply industries' and also for the UK Government. :ok:

The problem with using military aircraft in this situation is permission. Libya (or any where else en route) may, probably will, give permission for a civil aircraft but a military aircraft has very different connotations (even if only a passenger machine) and will probably be refused, particularly with a regime like the one we see in Libya.

That's not to say that they can't be used, just that if we did use one the whole risk assessment both for that flight and subsequent civil flights would be very, very different.

So, British Airways and BMI cancelled return flights to Libya yesterday. As a matter of interest, were the cancellations at the behest of the company management, or did crews not wish to take the risk to fly into Libya. If the former, surely a government insurance agreement could have overcome any misgivings that the companies would be re-imbursed for any losses. If the scheduled crews didn’t want to risk flying their planes there, surely there would have been volunteers from the companies that would have stepped in?

"Old King Coal Astraeus has a very creditable history of operating flights for 'energy supply industries' and also for the UK Government"


A friend told me Astraeus 757's are banned from Sierra Leone for safety issues - is that true? And Bmi had to put a A321 back on the route as a result...

Because they aren't there any more! What air assets we have left are mostly committed to Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1974 during the Cyprus civil war, we pulled out in 3 days some 20,000 people from Kingsfield and Akrotiri, some dressed only in swimming costumes and the blankets they had been given. In 1982, we we able to retake Britsh territories some 6,000 miles away. I have a friend who was evacuated twice by the military from Aden some 25 odd years ago. Never again, those days are long gone. The one RN warship available in the Med diverted to Libya is on its way to the scrapyard. These latest defence cuts coupled with the utter spinelesseness and lack of leadership within the FCO, will ensure that, if you are an expat working in foreign lands, you really are on your own.

Doesn't the Queens Flight still have a couple of 146s around ... or am I behind the times and they have been retired ?

Totally bananas,
The Sierra Leonean Government pulled the plug on BMI flights (operated by Astraeus 757) to Sierra Leone, purely based on a commercial dispute with BMI.

The chaotic situattion in Tripoli resulted in the 757 flight crew having just enough duty time to fly their passengers to Malta. A new crew is enroute to Malta by executive jet to bring that aircraft and passengers home. Another possible flight today on the Airbus.

QF 146s would probably carry very few due to their VIP configuration. I see the RAF Herc brought out 71 people - a mere drop in the ocean. Precisely what the UK government is playing at I cannot imagine, although past experience in a very similar situation leads me not to be suprised...