Nonstop to Chechnya; all aboard!

It seems that this past spring, civilian planes have returned to Grozny. The NYTimes has a brief article about it in today's paper (link at the end of this entry), and boy does it get the imagination going:

"Mr. Chaika described the old approach, before Chechnya’s airport was (destroyed during the latest war - then later rebuilt): the plane would circle high over Grozny, and then descend in a harrowing corkscrew, hoping to dodge groundfire. At takeoff, he said, the corkscrew was reversed, while military helicopters rose along the runway’s flanks, shooting flares to divert heat-seeking missiles from the ascending plane’s engines."

What an incredible scene, takeoff especially!

Luckily, as "normalcy" returns to Chechnya, the "new approach" for the six daily flights from Moscow is more conventional and without such dramatic, um, flair. It seems the security situation is more under control: it's not *guaranteed* that every plane will be shot at anymore. Still, I bet there's more than a few prayers said getting on and off the plane. And here we are, complaining about the proliferation of flight delays here in the US (not that we shouldn't, but it's a funny contrast in standards).

Hopefully plans to expand the Grozny flight schedule, to other parts of Russia and - even better - to other countries will go forth without too many problems. Either way, I certainly plan on visiting this part of the world at some point in the future, although I'll probably hold off if the corkscrew landing goes back into fashion.. unless I have a *really* good reason to go. ;) I can't let my Russian classes go to waste!

In any case, read the rest of the article at:

Nonstop to Chechnya: As War Ebbs, Flights Return
By C.J. CHIVERS, Published: September 11, 2007