Shannon Spooks VIPS and US Navy

clare | anti-war / imperialism | news report Tuesday March 30, 2004 14:28 by Tim

update on Shannon.

Not doing these updates as often as previously, I assume people still realise that the airport is still being used on a daily basis.
But t'was busy enough there recently to warrant a mention... and not just because troop numbers thru Shannon are on the increase.

On Saturday (27/3/04) our spy network informed us that the US Secret Service was visiting Dromoland Castle (I'm sure that has NOTHING to do with the rumour that the Brian Boru Hall in Dromoland will be the venue for Bush to address the US-EU Summit in June)

And of course, the Secret Service didn't walk here from Washington...

So out we went to the airport, arriving just as the sun was setting. the first thing we noted was that the ATA Tristar parked on the centre stand away from the terminal.
ATA are still moving troops for the Pentagon (and getting well paid for the charter)
There were a number of vehicles parked next to it, including an Irish Army jeep and Airport Police vehicles. There were some mobile field lights erected next to the plane as well, but they were facing away from the plane, illuminating the ground to the left of it.

Shortly afterwards we saw an APO jeep and an unmarked black 'pick-up truck' rushing out the eastern taxiway towards the north eastern end of the main runway.
In fact there were a lot of vehicles driving around in there, perhaps giving the Secret Service a tour of the facility?
We saw two more army jeeps in there as well as a big fancy car with flashing light on the dashboard

at 19:40 another ATA landed, this time it was the newer 737 (flying pencil) which taxied to the enclosed area at the west end of the terminal. It was accompanied by plenty of yellow vans with flashing lights and guarded throughout. Plane reg was N550TZ.
see file photo of this plane
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/184842/L/

at 20:40 a US Air Force VIP jet landed and taxied to the same enclosed area as the ATA 757. It was met by a few more vehicles and all the passengers disembarked to the ground and were brought by a van to the terminal. Due to the distance and poor light we couldn't confirm which Squadron it belongs to, but believe it to be part of USAF 89th Airlift Wing, possibly the 99th Squadron.

the interesting thing about all these rushing vans and flashing lights was that, even though this is the most energetic activity I have seen from the airport police, nobody did a full perimiter patrol in the whole time we were there (a few hours). Nobody approached us or drove by us... too busy impressing the dark sunglasses brigade perhaps?

Yesterday, I went to the terminal at 5.30 pm
(meeting someone off a flight, so Aer Rianta can stick their injunction! )

At the enclosed area at the end of the terminal there was another ATA plane (a Tristar with the older paint job)

and in the middle of the airfield was a DC-9 marked as being a US Navy jet, from the 61st Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VR-61), normally based on Whidbey Island, in Washington State (that's on the Pacific Coast of the US) The squadron consists of FOUR DC-9-33s which have been spotted at Shannon a number of occassions since late 2001.