An Cosantóir

18 | A by Lt Col Richard Cummins (Retd) s Libya spiralled into civil war at the beginning of 2011 governments around the world became very concerned for the safety of their citizens stranded in that country. Various countries put in place plans to extract their people as the security situation deteriorated. On February 21st 2011, the Irish government took the decision to deploy air assets to assist the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in organising the evacuation of Irish citizens. Late on February 21st two Air Corps aircraft, a Learjet 45 and a CASA CN235, with eight crew departed Casement Aerodrome for Luqa Airport in Malta. The Learjet is one of the two aircraft that provides the Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) to the government. It has a capacity for a crew of three and seven passengers. The Casa maritime patrol aircraft was configured for its role in Malta to take a crew of four and 21 passengers. This was the start of a nine-day humanitarian operation under the control of the DFA, who had a team deployed at the Irish Embassy in Malta to provide consular assistance to Irish citizens evacuating from Libya. The following day the Casa aircraft was tasked with transporting DFA officials to Tripoli airport in an effort to co-ordinate the evacuation. This mission proved to be problematic and despite intense negotiations with the Libyan authorities the aircraft and officials returned to Malta without managing to extract anyone. On subsequent days DFA officials commuted to and from Tripoli using commercial flights in a An Cosantóir Dec 2013/Jan 2014 www.dfmagazine.ie continuing effort to extract Irish citizens. A decision was taken in Dublin on February 24th to deploy the Gulfstream GIV aircraft to Rome to collect the Irish Ambassador to Italy, Mr Pat Hennessey, and bring him to Malta. Mr Hennessey also had ambassadorial responsibility for Libya and was in overall charge of the Irish operation. The Gulfstream GIV is the other MATS aircraft and operates with a crew of four and can carry 14 passengers. Additionally, an Emergency Civilian Assistance Team (ECAT) consisting of DFA officials and a member of An Garda Síochána deployed on this flight. Army personnel also travelled to provide assistance in the area of command, control and communications. The Air Corps also sent a detachment commander to assume responsibility for all Air Corps assets on the ground in Malta. On the same day the Learjet was tasked with an air ambulance flight to Tripoli at the request of the British government. On this mission the aircraft successfully evacuated a British family of five, consisting of a mother who had just given birth by Caesarean section, her baby, husband and two other children, to Malta for urgent medical treatment. February 25th began with extensive briefings at the Irish Embassy in Valetta followed later by a multinational meeting where a general consensus was reached that this should be a European-wide effort by all nations to assist EU citizens. There were extensive air assets from other European coun-

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