By Charlie Charalambous
BUNGLING government spy catchers have received a stern telling off from President Clerides over the recent helicopter débâcle.
It started out as a minor episode of Brit-bashing when newspaper reports surfaced last week claiming flares had been fired at two British helicopters allegedly snapping photos of a National Guard installation.
This could have been brushed aside as an exercise in light mischief-making, but the speculation was given credence when Defence Minister Yiannakis Omirou insisted that “an incident” between the British and the National Guard had taken place.
Though there was still some confusion over the actual time of the event — with conflicting sources plumping for either Saturday, Sunday, or maybe even Wednesday — never mind whose helicopters were involved.
Never mind, spy-helicopters circling over sensitive and strategic targets needed to be dealt with seriously and swiftly.
Last Thursday, officials from the British High Commission were summoned to the Foreign Ministry and had their knuckles rapped over the alleged incident.
The British, however, had a foolproof alibi: they had no helicopters airborne at the time in question (Sunday, it had finally been decided), but the Americans did.
After the government had been forced to retract its protests to London, it was then the turn of the American embassy in Nicosia to face the music.
The Defence and Foreign Ministries wanted to know why US Blackhawks were hovering suspiciously over a National Guard position in Zygi.
They read the riot act to the Americans, but failed to consult with Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Larnaca first.
Had officials done so, they would have learnt from ATC that the US helicopters had in fact been instructed to hover over the area at the given time.
Two Blackhawks, on a routine flight from Akrotiri to supply the US embassy in Beirut via Larnaca, were told to hold their positions in order to accommodate a civilian aircraft landing at the airport.
Traffic control had instructed them to circle around a position near the village of Zygi, Limassol.
The helicopters were allegedly bombarded with flares for their trouble.
President Clerides is understood to be “seething with rage” over the lack of co-ordination between his ministers, and the fact that representations were made before facts had been crossed-checked.
Security chiefs, meanwhile, are none too happy that Air Traffic Control is giving permission for alien craft to circle over classified sites within flight restriction zones.
With the government’s spy-monitoring reputation in tatters, British and American helicopters are expecting a much smoother ride this weekend.
