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Also, Russian military helicopters, such as Mi-8s were not designed with Western certification standards in mind, even those standards that existed in the 60s, when they came out first.In some cases, Russian aircraft are ahead of such standards and in other aspects, they are behind.In Russia, all aircraft meet both military and civil standards as they are required o serve both from Day 1.
regards
GttC
GTTC,
Thats spot on although the russians still build mil and civ varients of the same aircraft. The civil Mi 8 for example can be spotted because of its square side windows as oppose to the mil one where the pax look 'through the round window'.
I think the difference is purely cosmetic and comfort or perhaps a chlidhood spent watching Playschool!!!
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The Sudanese army said it had killed the leader of a group that kidnapped 11 Western tourists and eight Egyptians on Sunday and said the hostages were now in Chad, the state-run SUNA news agency reported.
The agency quoted a statement from the army as saying one of its units killed five other gunmen and detained two in a gun battle near the Egyptian and Libyan border. The army said "preliminary information" indicated the 19 hostages were inside Chad under the protection of 30 armed men. There was no comment from the Chadian government.
The army unit seized a white vehicle belonging to an Egyptian tourism company, along with papers linking the gunmen with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), a Darfur rebel group, the statement said, according to SUNA. Several Darfur rebel groups fight under the name of SLA. It was not clear which faction the Sudanese army was referring to.
Khartoum and the Darfurian rebel groups routinely trade accusations of bombings and acts of aggression in Darfur, a war-ravaged area in western Sudan. Egypt has identified the tourists as five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian. The eight Egyptians include the owner of the tour company whose German wife has been in contact with the kidnappers by satellite phone, according to Egyptian officials.
The Egyptian government and many political analysts have largely ruled out any political motivation behind the kidnapping. Egyptian officials say the kidnappers have demanded a ransom from the German government. One security official put the figure at $6 million euros. Egypt said this month four masked kidnappers seized the hostages while they were on safari in a remote desert area and took them across the border into Sudan. An Egyptian government official said on Saturday the hostages were inside Sudan.
The Sudanese army, however, said its unit searched for the hostages in the border area with Egypt from Thursday to Sunday but only found empty food cans and "traces of their vehicles in the direction of the Libyan border," the statement said. On its way back inside Sudan, the army unit encountered a speeding white vehicle whose passengers refused to stop and opened fire at the Sudanese soldiers, the statement said.
"As a result of the clash, six of the (gunmen) were killed including Bakhit the leader of the kidnappers who is a Chadian national and the capture of two others, one of them Sudanese." The statement said the army unit also seized firearms and a rocket-propelled grenade.
A spokesman for the SLA-Unity faction Mahgoub Hussein denied any involvement in the kidnapping. "The Unity movement emphasizes that it does not have any connection with the kidnapping and no individual members within the kidnapping cell," he said in a statement. Another SLA faction, headed by Abdel Wahed al-Nur, also denied any involvement.
It is interesting that the heli certification issue was first raised, according to the article, by the Dutch. What could they have known about the hire contract? The Dutch ambassador to the region has already taken a trip on one of them, which can be seen at the end of this video.
You will never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race
Perhaps this has more to with someone's nose being out of joint for not having got the contract than any actual "safety" issue with the aircraft.
regards
GttC
A group of Western tourists and their Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped 10 days ago by gunmen, have been freed.
The 11 hostages - five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - and some eight guides are said to be in good health.
The group, abducted in a remote border region of Egypt, have now arrived at a military base in the capital, Cairo.
Egyptian officials said they were freed in a mission near Sudan's border with Chad, and that half of the kidnappers were killed. No ransom was paid.
The freed hostages were greeted by Egyptian military and government officials on arrival in Cairo as well as foreign diplomats, and were then taken for medical checks.
Sudanese authorities had been tracking the group since early last week through a remote mountainous plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan.
They were seized in an ambush at around dawn on Monday, Egyptian security sources said. Some 150 Egyptian special forces were then sent to Sudan, officials said.
German officials had been negotiating via satellite phone with the kidnappers, who were demanding a ransom of $8.8m (£4.9m). Egyptian officials said no money exchanged hands.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Sudanese and Egyptian forces had carried out "a highly professional operation".
He added that "Italian intelligence and experts from the special forces" in Italy and Germany had been involved.
Egypt's defence minister said that half of hostage-takers had been "eliminated", without giving precise figures.
The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Cairo, says Egypt's tourism minister will be relieved.
The abductees had been touring in an area well off the beaten track but a messy end to this crisis would not have been good for the health of the Egyptian economy, our correspondent says.
Suspects
The breakthrough comes a day after Sudanese troops clashed with alleged kidnappers in northern Sudan, killing six gunmen. Another two were taken into custody.
The two suspects claimed the tourists were in Chad but their exact whereabouts at the time of rescue remains unclear. Chad denied the group was within its borders.
In a statement, the military said the vehicle of the hostage-takers was full of weapons and documents detailing how the ransom should have been paid.
Other documents found inside led the army to believe a faction of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army was involved in the kidnapping.
None of Darfur's numerous rebel groups have said they were linked to the kidnappings.
Other reports said the abduction, near the Gilf al-Kebir plateau, was carried out by tribesmen or bandits operating in the area.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
According to French newspapers, Chad rebels have acquired 165 new 4 x 4 jeeps and new weapons for a possible offensive when the rainy season comes to an end. The Chad Air Force are said to be looking to replace lost MI-24 and acquire the Su-25.
You will never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race
Nairobi/N'Djamena - The aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF - Medecins Sans Frontieres) has shut down two offices in eastern Chad and evacuated its staff after armed robberies, the charity said on Thursday.
MSF said that all activities in Ade and Goz Beida had been suspended indefinitely, leaving 70 000 people without access to health services.
"The fact that MSF is being attacked on a regular basis threatens our and other aid agencies' capacity to provide assistance to populations in eastern Chad," Karline, head of mission for MSF in Chad said in a statement.
"Ultimately, it is the sick and vulnerable that suffer the most," Kleijer added.
MSF said the weekend incidents, along with armed robberies on two other organisations and the hijacking of a United Nations vehicle, marked a peak in attacks on humanitarian agencies over the last six months.
The Chad government is fighting a sporadic rebellion in the east, which borders Sudan's restive Darfur province.
Rebels earlier in the year reached the Chad capital of N'Djamena before being repelled. - Sapa-dpa
I know that there are severe limitations on what can be done with the numbers of bodies on the ground but does that not represent a fundamental failure by EURFOR to enforce one of it's highest mandated priorities? ie provide the security for NGO's to operate effectively.
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