Flights resume at Tuzla airport

  • Published
  • By Maj. Adriane Craig
  • 16th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AFPN) --  The first civilian flight into Tuzla International Airport here since late 2001 landed June 4.

The French corporate flight was 15 minutes late, but it hardly seemed like a long delay, comparatively speaking.

Air traffic in Tuzla has been restricted to military aircraft since the airport shut down after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, because the terminal could not comply with the more stringent security restrictions.

The arrival of the eight passengers was a flight nearly a year-and-a-half in the making.

Airport officials had been struggling to get the proper operating procedures established, as well as safety and security plans; including emergency procedures for firefighting, rescue services and medical assistance. But it was a cumbersome project, seemingly hindered by the constant rotation of people in and out of the deployed location.

Enter Col. Kent D. Williams, 401st Expeditionary Air Base Group commander, who began working on the airport project in mid-January, as soon as he arrived here.

“It was clear there was a lot of frustration about the project dragging out,” said Williams.

Without hesitation, he went to work. By March, Williams had put together a timeline of tasks that needed to be completed for the airport to open. And, more importantly, he put together an airport or A-team: Capt. James Hilburn, airfield operations flight commander; 1st Lt. Josh Biggers, a civil engineer; and Master Sgt. Angela Beard, airfield manager.

The A-team and their cadre of folks worked with airport officials to update security and safety plans. Details were sketched out; exercises planned.

“We instantly went from talking to doing,” Beard said. “Colonel Williams was proactive and very positive about the project. He really cared.”

The airport director, Mustafa Terzic, was also grateful for the assistance, which he said will create “true economic potential” for local businesses.

However, Williams and his A-team did not make the airport re-opening happen alone. It took a lot of military support before the first flight could touch down, from lawyers drafting up legal agreements to military police training working dogs for airport security.

“The project had stalled,” said Lt. Col. Dennis Brown, 16th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group commander and the senior U.S. Air Force officer on the stabilization force headquarters staff in Sarajevo. “What (the project) really needed was someone to champion the cause, and that’s just what Colonel Williams did.”

“I just put my Air War College to use,” said Williams, a command pilot who graduated from the course in 2000 and is the dean of students there.

“This is nation-building in its simplest form,” he said. “I know my students don’t think that they’ll ever be doing things like this, but here we are. (The local nationals) are smart people. They really did it themselves, they just needed someone to help show them what needed to be done.” (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)