Shannonwatch

The following report on the appearance of peace activist Dave Donnellan at Ennis District Court on January 11th was prepared by our Court Correspondant. It relates to a peace action undertaken by DAveand Colm Roddy which took place on May 24th last year (see report here). Earlier court appearances on July 20th, Sept 14th and Nov 16th.

On 24th of May last year when peace actrivists Dave Donnellan and Colm Roddy went in to search a small US military executive jet, they also discovered that another far more suspicious aircraft was at Shannon that morning, and in fact took off on the main runway, just after Colm and Dave had crossed that runway.

Here is what a Shannonwatch researcher discovered about this aircraft

"The C-32B is a modified Boeing 757 and it features a standard seating fitment, as with a typical passenger jet. Any cargo must be stowed at the rear of the cabin as the usual cargo space in the hold has been configured to accommodate enlarged fuel tanks, extending the aircraft's unrefuelled max range to 6000 nautical miles.

The 486th Flight Test Squadron operates two Boeing C-32B and Boeing 757-23A aircraft on stand-by alert for special operations and intelligence missions world-wide. One of these, 02-4452, was at Shannon on the morning of March 25th.

So what was it doing there?

Analysis of Shannonwatch data shows that over 730 US military flights landed at Shannon in 2016. That's more than 2 a day over the entire year. Of these, 413 were operated by the US Air Force, Navy or military, and the remainder were contracted troop carriers like Omni Air International.

Since August 2008 at total of at least 7,988 US military planes carrying armed troops or cargo have landed at the airport. This does not include suspect rendition planes and planes not identifying themselves as attached to the CIA or US military which have undountedly also landed there.

On December 17th a very successful Peace Gathering took place in Clifden, Co. Galway. The meeting, organised by Sophie Clout O'Malley and others, was very well attended on a busy pre-Christmas Saturday afternoon. At it, Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch explained how the Irish Government is acting against the Irish Constitution in supporting US military wars of aggression in the Middle East that are in contravention of the UN Charter. Other speakers included Catherine Connolly TD, forner UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, and lifelong peace activist Margaretta D'Arcy. 

A full audio recording of the meeting is available here.

Shannonwatch calls on the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross to explain why a plane operating on behalf of the US military was permitted to fly from Shannon Airport to Incirlik Air Base in Southern Turkey and back on Friday December 30^th. The air base which is close to the Syrian border is used by the US to launch air and drone strikes and to store part of its nuclear arsenal. Any involvement in the delivery of military cargo or passengers to Incirlik is therefore a breach of Irish neutrality.

The plane, a Miami Air International Boeing 737, arrived at Shannon on Friday at 1pm, and took off less than 2 hours later.  It spent a similar length of time at the military airbase in Turkey before returning to Shannon at 4am the following morning.

Today at Shannon Airport another NATO warplane sat on the tarmac. This time is a British RAF Hercules C130J C5, registration ZH882. The aircraft left RAF Brize Norton base after mid-day yesterday.

Brize Norton is the largest station of the Royal Air Force and home to Air Transport, Air-to-Air refuelling and Military Parachuting,

Like the US military, the RAF are also waging a war of aggression in Syria, contrary to the UN Charter. On that basis this aircraft should not be at an Irish airport, unless it made an emergency landing. Even then, having landed, the plane and its crew should be arrested and held until the end of the hostilities that the UK are involved in.

When Shannonwatch photographed the plane at Shannon today there seemed to be some work in progress on one of the right side engines. One of our members contacted the Gardaí at Shannon and requested that they investigate this aircraft. As far as we know, this was not done.