New Year's Eve - 1978
A "warning order had been received that the Lahr based C-130 may be launched to extract the Canadian Embassy personnel located in Iran.
Given the state of the partying aircrew at the Fliegerhof, observed upon by Jim Dunn earlier in the evening as he picked up ice for the ATC section festivities, this seemed a remote possibility.
But "go" they did. The duty ATC staff went in. When the Herc taxied shortly after 2330 hours, Lahr ATC advised that they were ready to ask the German ATC controllers at Stuttgart for "airways". The Herc crew said that they wanted to wait and be airborne over Germany to observe the fireworks at midnight. Fireworks were a national tradition on New Years Eve. At 2350 the Herc crew advised that they were ready for "airways". Stuttgart's response was that they would have to wait because all the controllers were going outside to watch the fireworks.
"Airways" were eventually delivered at 0030, and the Herc sat in Turkey for two weeks waiting for diplomatic clearance to go into Tehran.
Updated: March 26, 2005