Washington Post: Djibouti air traffic controller punished U.S. military flight crew by making them circle overhead

Washington Post obtained a heavily redacted report on aviation safety hazards in Djibouti and found that civilian and military flights are constantly in danger of getting into an accident.

By SSgt Christopher Gross [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The root of the problem lies with the civilian air traffic controllers hired by the Djibouti government. They had a range of bad habits such as sleeping on the job or texting on the phone while on duty. On certain occasions, they would punished U.S. military flight crews for a perceived lack of respect by forcing them to circle overhead until they ran low on fuel.

Conditions became so bad that the U.S. government eventually shifted UAV operations from Camp Lemonnier, which is situated at the Djibouti international airport, to another location in the country.

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