FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
It will be an unprecedented twenty-four hours for those responsible for the skies of Rome and its surroundings for the funeral of Pope Francis.
Over 100 delegations are expected to arrive in the Italian capital to attend the Pope's funeral. Trump and Zelensky are expected to be welcomed at Fiumicino.
Almost the entire Fiumicino area of Rome has been transformed into a White House logistics outpost, with maximum surveillance especially around the presidential plane, Air Force One. Ciampino airport is full of state aircraft. The support of the naval practice base and other structures, like the one in Naples, are used as temporary parking for aircraft. Not to mention the control towers and radar centers with doubled staff that will have to manage the arrivals and departures of presidents and prime ministers, ministers and parliamentarians from half the world. In the background there will be air traffic at record levels, also thanks to the weekend and the holiday period.
Organizational machinery
It will be an unprecedented twenty-four hours for those responsible for the skies of Rome and its surroundings for the funeral of Pope Francis, three people familiar with the plans tell Corriere. And not only because of the "no-fly zone" over the capital that requires all aircraft to take different trajectories to avoid the city. But above all because there are the arrivals and departures of delegations from the countries that will attend the funeral in Vatican City to manage.
Trump and the presidential car
Air Force One, with US President Donald Trump, is expected at Fiumicino late in the evening of April 25. The Boeing 747 will be parked in the cargo area and the "cordon" will also be seen other aircraft that will accompany the entire delegation, including military ones such as the C-17. Among them, one will have in the cabin Cadillac One, the "beast" - as it is better known - the hyper-armored presidential car weighing almost 9 tons that will take the head of the White House to the center of Rome. Some of the aircraft will then depart for Pratica di Mare, the military port.
The US presidential plane will be escorted by NATO fighter jets as it traverses European skies. And unlike other delegations, US security protocol requires that there be no other air traffic on the same runway for 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after Air Force One arrives. The same will happen at Fiumicino. Of the three runways in use, two are under discussion to be closed when Trump arrives. The plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected at the same airport. All state flights could then require double separation at high altitude from other aircraft, which could lead to a slowdown. Also under surveillance are the planes carrying Joe Biden, the former US president who is due to land at Ciampino along with the US Congressional delegation.
Traffic record
Fiumicino will certainly not stop scheduled flights. On Friday, April 25 alone, 150-160 thousand people are expected between departures and arrivals. Another 15,000 to 20,000 will arrive, again by air, to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, according to internal estimates. Around fifty delegations will land at Fiumicino - not to mention all the cardinals arriving for the Conclave - thirty at Ciampino, twenty at Pratica di Mare, according to Corriere's calculations. But since the parking spaces at the first two airports are not enough - because they also have to accommodate passenger planes - according to the protocol of the Foreign Ministry, the planes are also moved to airports outside Rome, such as Naples, Florence or Pisa.
Piloted control towers
Two hundred special flights between arrivals and departures, all concentrated in 24 hours, announced at very short notice. This means that more air traffic controllers will be employed, more personnel in the radar centers, but also more technicians and IT specialists ready to intervene in case there are problems with the ground instruments. They will also have to reduce the impact - which inevitably will be there - on the scheduled connections.
The "race" to restart as soon as possible
The real logistical problem, insiders explain, will be at the end of the funeral. On Saturday afternoon, the delegations will seek to leave as quickly as possible to return to their capitals. If some state planes are already at Fiumicino or Ciampino, others will have to leave from other Italian airports used for temporary parking, then land at facilities in Rome, pick up the heads of state and government and leave again./ Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Corriere Della Sera”
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