Pope Francis, the Air Force One, the aerial security protocols, the Born Hunt: the 24 hours in which the world flies to Rome
Oitre 100 delegations in the capital to participate in the pontiff’s funeral. Trump and Zelensky expected Fiumicino. The safety rules provided by the White House. The car set up by Adr, ENAC and ENAV
Almost the whole cargo area of Rome Fiumicino transformed into a logistics outpost of the White House, with the maximum surveillance in particular around the presidential Air Force One. The Ciampino airport full of state planes. Practice of the sea support. And other structures, such as that of Naples, used as a temporary jet parking. Not to mention the control towers and radar centers with doubled staff who will have to manage the arrivals and restarts of presidents and premier, ministers and parliamentarians from all over the world. In the background there will be air traffic – the « regular » one – at record levels, also thanks to the weekend and the festive bridge period.
The organizational machine
It will be twenty -four hours unprecedented for those who deal with the skies of Rome and the surroundings for the funeral of Pope Francis, tell the Courier Three people aware of the plans (always susceptible to changes). And not only for the « No-Fly Zone » on the capital that requires all planes to carry out different trajectories to circumvent the city. But above all because there are to manage the arrivals and restarts of the delegations of the countries that will participate in the funeral in the Vatican city. The organizational machine – which belongs to the Civil Protection – has seen in the last hours engaged in particular airports of Rome (as far as it happens on the ground in the Fiumicino and Ciampino airports), ENAV (for the control of air traffic) and the national body for civil aviation to supervise to develop everything.
Trump and the presidential machine
The Air Force One with the United States President Donald Trump on board is expected in Fiumicino in late April 25th. The Boeing 747 will be parked in the Cargo area and the « cord » will also see other aircraft that will accompany the entire delegation, including military ones such as C-17. Among these, one will have Cadillac One, the « beast » in the belly-as is best known-, the presidential car hyper-blined of almost 9 tons that will bring the head of the White House to the center of Rome. Some of the aircraft will then leave for the practice of sea, the military stopover.
Biden in Ciampino
The US presidential plane will be accompanied by the NATO hunting as soon as the European skies are furrowed. And unlike other delegations, the American security protocol requires that 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the arrival of the Air Force One on the same track there are no other air movements. The same will also happen in Fiumicino. Of the three tracks in use, you are thinking whether to close two when Trump arrives. In the same airport, the Jet with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected. All state flights will then be able to ask for a double separation at high altitude with other aircraft, which could result in a slowdown. Planes with Joe Biden (the former US president should land in Ciampino) and those of the American congress were also attacked.
The traffic record
Fiumicino will certainly not stop scheduled flights. 150-160 thousand people are expected between departures and arrivals only on Friday 25 April. Another 15 and 20 thousand will arrive, always on air, to participate in the funeral of Pope Francis, according to the internal estimates. About fifty delegations will land in Fiumicino – not to mention all the cardinals coming for the Conclave -, thirty in Ciampino, about twenty in practice of sea, according to the calculations of the Courier. But since the parking pitches in the first two airports are not enough – because they must also welcome passenger planes – according to the protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Air Foreign Airplanes are also relocated to Scali outside Rome, such as Naples, Florence or Pisa.
Support control towers
Two hundred special flights between arrivals and departures, all concentrated in 24 hours, announced in no time – the last list dates back to Thursday, less than two days before the funeral – they will also require an ENAV effort, also economic, significant. They will be employed – even in the night shift, from 23 to 7 in the morning – more flight controllers, more personal in the radar centers, but also more technical and IT ready to intervene if there were problems for the instrumentation on the ground. To all of them will also touch the impact – which will inevitably be there – on the line connections.
The « race » to start again as soon as possible
The real logistical problem, explain the insiders, will be at the end of the funeral. Saturday afternoon the delegations will ask to take off as soon as possible to return to their capital. If some state planes are already found in Fiumicino or Ciampino, others will have to leave the other Italian airports used for temporary parking, then land in the structures of Rome, embark on the heads of state and government and start again.
