A Predator drone takes off into the harsh sunlight against a backdrop of dusty mountains on the outskirts of Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan.
Drones are just one of the 60 types of aircraft that Alex Marsha has to deal with as air traffic manager at Kandahar Airfield, overseeing what must be the most diverse air traffic control operation in the world.
“The biggest challenge obviously is operating in a combat zone, we’re handling a vast number of military and civilian aircraft here,” he said, looking out from the new control tower which went into operation just days earlier, replacing the old makeshift tower perched on top of a couple of shipping containers.
“The different types of aircraft that we have, ensuring the safety for each and every one of them, trying to expedite the fighter aircraft that are supporting the guys on the ground, that’s a big challenge when you’ve got the volume of traffic that we work here,” he said.
With 5,300 flights a week, Kandahar is busier than London’s Gatwick Airport, previously the world’s busiest single runway airport, and, says Marsha, more challenging than Heathrow.
“At a facility like Heathrow, you have the air carrier aircraft — Airbuses, Boeing aircraft — that are flying at approximately the same air speeds, they have the same flight characteristics. Here you’ve got 60 different types of aircraft that are flying 60 different types of air speeds and their characteristics are different, so our control room staff have got to ensure that they take all that into consideration,” he said.
In addition, military aircraft must retain tactical room for maneuvers as they come in since it is a combat zone, which means less of the crowded air space can be allocated to other aircraft.
“It just makes it very challenging to keep the traffic flowing as efficiently as possible,” he said.
An average day would also see F16s, F18s, A10s, Mirages, C17s, C130s and a lot of civilian aircraft, Marsha said.
Marsha is understandably proud of his 42 staff, most of whom, like himself, are ex-military.
“Being prior military helps them adapt to the environment and to understand the complexities of working in a combat environment,” he said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
RSS