Ikarusina
12-31-2001, 01:12 PM
I was supposed to be on vacation… I just had to go see Berlin, didn’t I?
I arrived in Berlin just before noon and everything was fine: - ‘til I got stopped in the airport by German Security.
They were asking all American and German pilots with helicopter certs. to come with them. Of course, I went.
We were marshaled into a large conference room and – in short, after more than an hour of hushed whispers and a good bit of confusion, a man took a small podium to address all of us – we were seven pilots all counted: four German, two American and one Belgian.
There’d been a fatal airplane-helicopter collision earlier just outside of Hamburg and a storm had knocked out two Security helo’s which were in-bound to Berlin the previous night.
Sounded bad – I didn’t like where this was going.
An American Attaché stood to speak.
He gave us the drop on some intel. that had come in regarding a plan of a small terrorist cell operating out of Algiers which was known to be in Berlin and planning to take over a Delta 737-400 sometime within the next 32 hours.
The Germans were short on helo pilots and Security forces for the Airports, as a good many had been called out to Hamburg, the other crash sites and were working other cases.
That’s it – we were being recruited for a special outfit.
I tried to object – but the American Consul just gave me a look and told me to sit. So I did.
That was my two day vacation in Berlin. One day was shot to blazes flying two American agents and one German liaison agent around Berlin – flying interdiction and security patrol sweeps.
That afternoon, we stopped two Delta 737’s at Tegel (EDDT) Airport, and 1 at Schonefeld (EDDB).
That night, in a dreary rain and ominous thunderstorm, we stopped a total of seven: five at Tegel and two at Schonefeld.
I was instructed to block the jets’ path on taxi-way so they could be boarded and swept by the agents.
On the last three, the agents called in German SWAT (or the equivalent) to sweep the planes even more thoroughly.
Anyway – not much of a vacation, but it was some excitement and a little adventure in Berlin.
We were even ordered out on short notice to intercept a little Cessna that had departed with suspicious haste and had failed to file a flight plan – that was a rush. They may not be all that fast, but try to catch one at altitude in a police helo when the suspects have a head-start…
In all events, here are some of the shots taken during that first day of my “vacation in Berlin.”
I was happy enough to get out to Bremen the following night – I’ll need to see Berlin again some other time.
Hope someone may enjoy these few… (broken into two sub-sets).
Berlin * Air Journal, Set III – 1st sub-set
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-3.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-1.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-2.jpg
..This was the first Delta we stopped that afternoon…
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-5.jpg
..That evening took a turn for the worse with a dreary rain that brought in heavy storm clouds…
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-6.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-4.jpg
..The intercepted Cessna: we had to force them down… Turned out they were drunk and heading out to some small town in the north for a night of partying and didn’t want to be stopped by filing a flight-plan… :-roll
[/center]
- Cont’d, 2nd sub-set -
Regards,
Tia
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/OHAT-Logo1d.jpg
Odyssey Hellenic Air Tours
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Aphaia.gif
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/gr-flag2_anim.gif
I arrived in Berlin just before noon and everything was fine: - ‘til I got stopped in the airport by German Security.
They were asking all American and German pilots with helicopter certs. to come with them. Of course, I went.
We were marshaled into a large conference room and – in short, after more than an hour of hushed whispers and a good bit of confusion, a man took a small podium to address all of us – we were seven pilots all counted: four German, two American and one Belgian.
There’d been a fatal airplane-helicopter collision earlier just outside of Hamburg and a storm had knocked out two Security helo’s which were in-bound to Berlin the previous night.
Sounded bad – I didn’t like where this was going.
An American Attaché stood to speak.
He gave us the drop on some intel. that had come in regarding a plan of a small terrorist cell operating out of Algiers which was known to be in Berlin and planning to take over a Delta 737-400 sometime within the next 32 hours.
The Germans were short on helo pilots and Security forces for the Airports, as a good many had been called out to Hamburg, the other crash sites and were working other cases.
That’s it – we were being recruited for a special outfit.
I tried to object – but the American Consul just gave me a look and told me to sit. So I did.
That was my two day vacation in Berlin. One day was shot to blazes flying two American agents and one German liaison agent around Berlin – flying interdiction and security patrol sweeps.
That afternoon, we stopped two Delta 737’s at Tegel (EDDT) Airport, and 1 at Schonefeld (EDDB).
That night, in a dreary rain and ominous thunderstorm, we stopped a total of seven: five at Tegel and two at Schonefeld.
I was instructed to block the jets’ path on taxi-way so they could be boarded and swept by the agents.
On the last three, the agents called in German SWAT (or the equivalent) to sweep the planes even more thoroughly.
Anyway – not much of a vacation, but it was some excitement and a little adventure in Berlin.
We were even ordered out on short notice to intercept a little Cessna that had departed with suspicious haste and had failed to file a flight plan – that was a rush. They may not be all that fast, but try to catch one at altitude in a police helo when the suspects have a head-start…
In all events, here are some of the shots taken during that first day of my “vacation in Berlin.”
I was happy enough to get out to Bremen the following night – I’ll need to see Berlin again some other time.
Hope someone may enjoy these few… (broken into two sub-sets).
Berlin * Air Journal, Set III – 1st sub-set
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-3.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-1.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-2.jpg
..This was the first Delta we stopped that afternoon…
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-5.jpg
..That evening took a turn for the worse with a dreary rain that brought in heavy storm clouds…
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-6.jpg
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Berlin-4.jpg
..The intercepted Cessna: we had to force them down… Turned out they were drunk and heading out to some small town in the north for a night of partying and didn’t want to be stopped by filing a flight-plan… :-roll
[/center]
- Cont’d, 2nd sub-set -
Regards,
Tia
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/OHAT-Logo1d.jpg
Odyssey Hellenic Air Tours
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/Aphaia.gif
http://tiac@tia.cheetaweb.com/gr-flag2_anim.gif