The A400M, the tool of Turkish “all-out” diplomacy
(B2) Iran, Somalia, Iraq... the A400M is beginning to establish itself as the all-terrain transport tool par excellence, like the good old Mercedes truck for ambulances, but also as a great diplomatic tool. And it is Ankara which has become, today, one of the best users of the European transport plane built by Airbus, in different places where we had not seen this plane before.
A Turkish A400M took off very quickly after the violent earthquake that struck Iraq and Iran. Direction: Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish military transport plane landed at Sulaymaniyah airport in northern Iraq in the early hours of Monday (November 13th). On board, a research team of 20 people, a medical team of 10 people, and 20 tons of equipment.
It is also a Turkish A400M which had been sent to Mogadishu after the terrible attack of October 14, to carry out the medical evacuation of 34 wounded from Somalia towards Turkey to continue their treatment.
It is still an A400M which had landed at Mahrabad airport (in Tehran), preceding Recep Tayip Erdogan's visit to Iran in early October, transporting the security forces and their vehicles to prepare for the official visit, qualified as historical, celebrating the reconciliation of neighbors whom everything opposed until then in Syria. An event in itself.
(NGV)
NB: British and French are not left out. But in a use that remains, after all, more classic, for places. Several A400Ms were dispatched to the Caribbean islands (Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, and Saint Martin) after the passage of hurricanes Irma and Maria.
