Tight airspace for Navy aviators in Mideast

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Radar operators work in the radar room at Qatar International Airport, in Doha, Qatar. Naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman said one of their newest difficulties has been navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world's fastest airline growth in recent years.


Tight airspace for Navy aviators in Mideast
By Sebastian Abbot - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 4, 2008 17:26:59 EDT

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN — U.S. pilots flying missions over Iraq come to the region expecting a host of challenges, including swirling sandstorms and urban battlefields filled with a mix of enemies and civilians.

But naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman said one of the newest difficulties has been the least expected: navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world’s fastest airline growth in recent years.

The mix of U.S. combat aircraft and civilian planes from booming Gulf airlines illustrates the growing divide in the Middle East between countries like Iraq and Lebanon, which are mired in political and sectarian conflict, and oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar enjoying windfall revenue and surging investment.

Cmdr. Bill Sigler, head of an F/A-18 fighter jet squadron on the Truman, estimated that planes flying off the carrier headed north over the Persian Gulf to Iraq were confined to one-fifth of the airspace available the last time he was in the region in 2002 because of increased airline traffic.

“You have to carve a strip out of the middle of the Gulf and that’s frequently below 15,000 feet, which for us is like confining your car to the sidewalk,” Sigler said. “It does not give us much to work with.”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_crowdedairspace_050308/