RAMCC teaches Iraqis to touch the sky

Published Aug. 23, 2009
By Senior Airman Alyssa C. Miles
U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affaris

BAGHDAD -- Beginning Aug. 25, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority will independently conduct day-to-day civil aviation operations, thanks to the direction of an organization stationed here and in Southwest Asia.

The Regional Air Movement Control Center has worked for more than half a decade to assist the ICAA in normalizing their civilian aviation capabilities. Before and during the turnover, the RAMCC mission was to coordinate movement of all civil aircraft landing, departing or flying over the Baghdad Flight Information Region, a task that affected more than 400 civil flights every day. All civil flights in and over Iraq were approved by the ICAA and then assigned identification codes and published into a daily flying schedule by RAMCC.

"A typical day at the RAMCC is processing hundreds of emails from civil airline companies requesting flight approval," said Lt. Col. Dan Oosterhous, RAMCC chief. "As ICAA approves the flight, the flight details are stored in a database for tracking and at the end of the day, we turn that data into a schedule and publish it to all Command and Control and Air Traffic Control agencies in Iraq."

According to Colonel Oosterhous, the turnover process has been in the works since shortly after the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"In 2003, the U.S. controlled all civilian and military flights in Iraq," Colonel Oosterhous explained. "RAMCC was stood up to deconflict the military and civilian air traffic. As Iraq's capabilities developed, the RAMCC's role decreased. The Air Mobility Division within the Combined Air Operations Center took over military traffic and only civilian flights, landings and takeoffs were handled by RAMCC, with the assistance of ICAA."

Responsibilities were gradually handed over to the Iraqis with each rotation as the locals proved they were capable of handling the tasks. As part of the transition, RAMCC introduced a new scheduling process to ICAA's outdated system. According to Colonel Oosterhous, ICAA was receiving flight requests by fax, mail and letters and recording them inside an oversized book, a process the Air Force was using in the 1980s.

"They did not have the capability to electronically compile data," he said. "Everything was done manually."

The RAMCC went to work setting up a lesson plan to teach basic computer and organizational skills to the ICAA team. Last month, the RAMCC began the final stage of transition by training the ICAA how to produce and publish the daily flying schedule. Conducting on-the-job training proved to be no easy task - trainers struggled to break through the language barrier and sometimes only got an hour of classroom time inside 18 hours, as training had to be squeezed inside the ICAA 24-hour work day.

Nonetheless, Colonel Oosterhous and his team were able to teach the four ICAA shifts how to manage the large volume of data they received through emails and phone call, approve or disapprove flights and ultimately produce a daily flying schedule.

Out of the team of 17, Omar Alsamarraai, who has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, was chosen to be the manager of ICAA's Air Transport Facilitation Section. Mr. Alsamarraai feels the new procedures put in place by RAMCC have proven to be beneficial to his team.

"This capability provides follow-up on information," he said. "When we were using paper, trying to do research took time and we didn't have long-term storage. Now everything is automatic - we search for info and it shows up. We can find items quickly. Also, we used to not be able to communicate between shifts. Now that we're on a local area network, we share data among different shifts."

Colonel Oosterhous feels the advancement the office has made has been amazing to watch.

"I'm very impressed with the attitude and enthusiasm of the folks I've been working with," the Texarkana, Texas native said. "They have made a huge leap forward in their office's capabilities. They can all communicate with outside agencies through phone and email. They appreciate what we're doing here and to see them correctly apply a new skill is very rewarding."

With his team fully trained and now responsible for independently producing and publishing the entire schedule for Iraqi air traffic, Mr. Alsamarraai is looking forward to the future of ATFS and his country.

"My aim is to increase the number of people on each shift," he said. "The more Iraq economically progresses, the more companies and flights we will have. The 400-500 flights we have now may double or even triple. I want to bring in more people, better all of our computer skills and make sure everyone knows the Iraqi regulations."

Still, he says the help they have received from RAMCC will not be forgotten.

"We really appreciate the coalition forces for helping us stand back up on our feet in Iraqi aviation," he said.