UK: Planes could be refitted to carry wounded back from the Gulf
Three of the UK’s charter airlines have agreed to supply aircraft to ferry wounded troops back from Iraq.
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that casualties could be much higher that in the 1990 Gulf War, especially if the conflict ends in a siege of Baghdad, as widely predicted. Britannia Airways, Monarch and Air 2000 all have contracts with the MoD and the Government department is currently in talks with the three carriers regarding how planes could be converted for use in any conflict.
A spokesman said that the planes would not become “flying operating theatres” but that they would be reconfigured to carry people on stretchers.
Despite the carriers telling the Daily Express they were hiring out the planes as part of their standard charter operation, the travel industry journal Travel Weekly news editor Louise Longman is reported to have suggested that the contract only came about because the three carriers were suffering from the recent slowdown in the travel industry.
