Tripoli closes airspace
Video: Alan Adami
Tripoli has now closed its airspace and an Egypt Air aircraft circling outside Libyan airspace has not been allowed it, according to Air Malta’s Crisis Operations Room visited this afternoon by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech.
Pilot Charles Pace, who operated Air Malta’s flight from Tripoli which landed here at 1.30 p.m., said that the apron in Tripoli was now practically deserted and the feeling was an eerie one with the situation being very different to that described by the pilots who had operated earlier flights.
He said there was absolute calm and emptiness with very little happening.
Air Malta’s country manager in Libya Anthony Dalli returned to Malta from Tripoli today. He said there had been around 6,000 people at Tripoli Airport and another 2,000 outside and Air Malta representatives had run in and out of the terminal carrying a Maltese flag to attract the attention of the Maltese.
One of the people on the Crisis Intervention Team, who represented the airline’s insurers, said that Libya had been declared a war zone and as a result the premium the airline had to pay for each flight had shot up.
It was pointed out that pilots and crew operating to Libya were doing so voluntarily.
On their way to Tripoli Airport, people were stopped and checked and their their mobile phones, cameras and other equipment was being taken away.
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Jesmond Farrugia
Feb 27th 2011, 16:05
Tripoli airport has reopened. A Turkish Airways 737-8F2 is on descent and a Russian Emergency Services Ilyushin Il-76TD has just landed.
Ronald Agius
Feb 26th 2011, 21:51
G. Mangion & Peter Bonnici, I was neither homesick nor have I fled away from Libya , for both your information i flew to Libya on Monday .. and returned Thursday, as per my scheduled flight rerservation , after i had concluded what i had gone to Libya for. I had no reason to run away, neither anything to make me homesick., I saw nothing in Tripoli which could make me feel in any way you seem to anticipate......Fortunetly I am a believer of what i see, not what I am fed....LIKE BOTH OF YOU ,
harry kewel
Feb 25th 2011, 18:51
yes but why would aircraft be asked to hold when the report says that the apron was practically empty? The airspace is being closed because of arrivals that come in close to Mitiga which is the military base on the coast just outside Tripoli. Also the departures seem to have changed with aircraft not being allowed to fly over Zawia as they usually do.
J. Borg
Feb 25th 2011, 18:47
Kif f'kollox irridu ndahhlu l-politika hawn malta! In such a worrying time, we should all concentrate how this will affect us, not in the present time but in the future. Som bloggers really find every opportunity to write anything that is against the PL and past leaders. As if what's happeneing has got to do with past leaders of thePL.
Franco Farrugia
Feb 25th 2011, 20:06
How this will effect us..... is this all that you care about? You don't care about the Libyans being massacred by the hundreds? Is that the extent of our so-called 'values'. I think not.
Matthew Schembri
Feb 25th 2011, 18:36
Apparently there is another Egypt Air holding pattern right now between Malta & Tripoli !
carmel vella
Feb 25th 2011, 17:56
I invite you to have a look at the website: flightradar24.com from were you can clearly see that the Libyan airspace is still open. A flight of Afriqiyah Airways that left LGW has just landed in Tripoli.
L. Brincat
Feb 25th 2011, 18:27
Tripoli is only accepting aircrafts when there is a slot available. So this is practicaly by luck... if you check flightradar24.com you will see some aircrafts circling around until an aircraft departs from Tripoli and get a slot... else they divert to other airports ... Afriqiyah flight 901 on hour ago was one of them which was circling around on the South Med. Sea and managed to get a slot due to a departing aircraft.
c vella
Feb 25th 2011, 18:47
Infact you are right Mr Brincat. I was just following an Egypt Air flight (Star Alliance) Boeing 777 circling in a hold in the airspace you spoke about.
John Borg
Feb 25th 2011, 17:54
@ jgalea l-orizzont kienet qieghda tirraporta dak li qal haddiem li gie lura minn Tripli. Dan ma kien kumment editorjali u l-kumment tieghek ghandu rieha tinten ta' min ihobb ihalli lil haddiehor jehodu hsieb ta' hsibijietu!! http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=70532
Peter Bonnici
Feb 25th 2011, 18:28
U 'l-hmar jghajjar lill denbu.
Ronald Agius
Feb 25th 2011, 17:51
I returned from Libya yesterday afternoon, one comment I have to make that we were treated very well by the Libyan uniformed police and by the civil police, more so, on our arrival, where we had to descend our transport around 400 metres from the airport building, a uniformed police official approached us in the most polite manner , once we identified ourselves that we are maltese citizens, he whisked us all the way to the airport terminal, on arrival there, two civillian police approached us, again they accomapnied us to the Air Malta desk, and then I have to say we found all the assistance needed from the Air Malta staff in Libya. It is wrong to say that the mobiles were being taken away by police, they only politely asked us to switch off our mobiles. Thanks to all the personal I have mentioned, they made our departure from Tipoli a very calm and easy one, least of all I have to say that in Tripoli, at least were we were staying all week nd most of Tripoli, there was not a fraction of the trouble the International press described, they were alarming a lot of people unnecessarly.
Peter Bonnici
Feb 25th 2011, 18:08
So what brought you back then ? Homesickness?
G. Mangion
Feb 25th 2011, 18:18
@ Ronald Agius Since You said that all is ok and that the International Media is were alarming people unnecessarly, Now will You tell us WHY did You Fled Away From Libja ? Please dont tell me that you have been misleaded by any Media, Localy or Internationaly !....
R Saliba
Feb 25th 2011, 18:56
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110225/local/chaos-corruption-and-commotion-at-tripoli-evacuees
J Zerafa
Feb 26th 2011, 07:39
@P Bonnici and @ G Mangion Oh shut up! Afterall you were watching it all from the comfort of your homes. we returned from Tripoli on the afternoon wednesday flight and until the minute we left we felt quite safe in our area. Yes the Media did alarm our families and friends! I was at the office all of Monday which is just 1km away from Green Square and there was no bombing going on as the press was saying. Just 2 helicopters circling the area .Our drive to the airport was uneventful but like Mr Agius we had to leave our transport and walk the last bit to the terminal. The terminal was jam packed and it took us 5 hours to get on Air Malta which was waiting on the apron. We came back when we did because our families were going through hell, believing that the scenes viewed were taking place in every area and in every street in Libya! Communications were and still are terrible and it was next to impossible assure our loved ones that we were safe. However, we do not regret getting out when we did.
Joseph Calleja
Feb 25th 2011, 17:40
Is this the end for the Gaddafi dictatorship? Is this the last straw before Gaddafi et al commits suicide?( Wishful Thinking). I hope the Libyan people can appreciate their assets and manage to put a democratic government together, after all that is what they are fighting for. No more corrupt regimes or dictators.
G.Galea
Feb 25th 2011, 17:38
They are not saying anything on Sky News!
jgalea
Feb 25th 2011, 17:36
Mr Borg qatt ma tippretendi ahjar mill orizzont, dawn ma jinbidlu qatt
c vella
Feb 25th 2011, 17:51
Tista tkun ftit aktar oggettiv. Skuzani jekk l-intelligenza tieghek twassal s`hemm. Fil-verita kien hemm nies illi anke fuq l-istazzjonijiet tat-televizzjoni Maltin kollha qalu meta gew intervistati illi ma raw xejn b`ghajnejhom. Dan ma jfissirx li ma kienx hemm, anzi sfortunatament kien hemm hafna mwiet. B`daqshekk ma jidirlix illi kellek tkun partiggjan hekk. Anke din is-sitwazzjoni daqshekk difficli ghall-poplu Libjan ser nippruvaw naghtuwa tomgha mil-politika partiggjana ta` Malta. Fejn ser wasalna???
Adrian Cardona
Feb 25th 2011, 17:30
wrong. it's open
M.Cachia
Feb 25th 2011, 18:49
Wrong! - It's closed
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_637549.html
Adrian Cardona
Feb 25th 2011, 19:07
I assure you that you, and your sources, are wrong.
M.Cachia
Feb 25th 2011, 19:39
Of course - I'm sure you know more than the austrian military and the Austrian Minister of Defense that's trying to airlift it's people. Do you happen to be currently out on the apron in Tripoli?
J. J. Borg
Feb 25th 2011, 17:27
And then we have a Maltese who just came back from Libya who told L-Orizzont that all these reports of fighting in Tripoli are lies disseminated by CNN and al-Jazira!!
MPace
Feb 25th 2011, 18:12
I think it was the same person who returned from Libya yesterday who was interviewed by the Times and other journalists. Please refer to:- 'http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/more-maltese-return-from-libya-extra-flight-planned'
Peter Bonnici
Feb 25th 2011, 18:15
Clearly, l-Orizzont heavily misquoted Martin Galea's statement; http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/02/25/pravda-reporting-for-gaddafi-by-john-pisani-of-l-orizzont/
R Saliba
Feb 25th 2011, 18:58
Peter, I wonder why..
Please choose the reason of your report below: