What is going down - updates here please

Rubyroo wrote:

At least some flights are going, all updates are helpful, thanks Shipwrecked, what airline are they flying with?

They fly with ALITALIA to Rome then Amsterdam. Later on today the rest of us including me are booked for Lufthansa.

Your welcome.

I think the advice posted on another thread for people that the company have not paid for there tickets is take cash for tickets.

safe flight shipwrecked,

Ok one more update.
The situation is changing every minute. The Alitalia flight is still in Rome not sure to come to Tripoli. There are flights going out but with major delay which will cause that flights might be completely canceled. If the shit starts in Tripoli down town after 4pm like yesterday and they close the airspace again, there will be thousands of people stuck on the airport.

Hoping for the best!

Best of luck to you Shipwrecked, I know British Airways, BMI and Libyan Airlines(to Manchester, England) all cancelled so far.  I hope you have no problems. Take care

Are people getting out without exit visa? Is Tripoli safe to drive through to the airport? We live outside Tripoli, so are not sure. What is the Irish situation...the embassy has only updated their website but not contacted me http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=8517
.....I am hoping to stay here, I am not an ''EXPAT WORKER'' I am a ''Libyans Wife'' So leaving would be a LAST resort
Any one else in a similar situation out there????

I was driving around some parts of Tripoli this morning:
•    Gorji Road, Jamhouria St, Bab Bengheshir, Hadba, area around Rixos Hotel ,Airport Road, Abusleem, Swani Road.
•    I could not get through to Green Sq or the central part of town because they are blocked by armoured vehicles and security.
•    I am reserving my petrol  otherwise I would've checked other parts of town
•    There is light traffic on the roads
•    I saw a few burned buildings
•    I saw remains of burned tyres, wood and tree branches on the roads
•    I saw a few burned photos of Gaddafi
•    I saw anti Gaddafi graffiti on walls, most of it painted over with white paint.
•    I saw a couple of pro Gaddafi graffiti in Abusleem
•    I saw people in groups of 3 or 4 huddled together outside their homes.
•    I saw Long queues at petrol stations and bakeries
•    Green grocers had supplies in yesterday but none today.
•    Most food shops are shut and the ones open are empty of stable foods like Flour/Rice/pasta/tomato puree/milk..etc
•    Everybody is tense and the atmosphere is filled with anticipation and fear.
•    Little presence of traffic police mainly at the big roundabout in Jamhouria St.
•    Mobile service is very minimal, Almadar is completely down (at least in Tripoli)
•    Libyana's service is operating but almost unusable
•    Internet service (Wimax) is still operating but throttled
This was a true account of my observations this morning
I wish everyone stays safe

Franc Mc, hanging there and stay safe, our prayer is with you and the rest of Libyan people who are so brave to fight for their rights. Hopefully this will be over soon without losing many more life.

Gunshots or fireworks(still cant differentiate) can be heard in Ain Zahra, Tripoli. It's only 7pm but I guess its payback for yesterday's silent rainy night in our area.

I used to live in Ain Zara....

M. Gadhafi speach was just broadcast on AlJazeera over the net.  From what I can tell, he called on his supporters to fill the streets and to search out the "druged out youth" who are causing problems.  My fear is that it also seems that he was threatening Benghazi...as I dont understand much Arabic, can anyone else elucidate what he means?

just seen him too he's completely off his tits! must ahve od'd ranting about tianemen square, Falujah, Waco blaming drugged youths & greasy rats for the trouble etc etc how can anyone follow such a washed up wacko??!!

ok it is not funny any more:
as soon as he finished his speech, Tripoli air filled with gunfire
his supporters are out in force now intimidating every street. He told them to go to out and clean libya street by street from what he called miceRATS
We are scared shitless of what is coming
Those expats that are still in tripoli please stay indoors, secure your doors and pray

I hope they wont try to come inside:( If anyone hear something near Gilgarish please let us know!!

19:48 Clashes in Bin Ashoor area in Tripoli right now – Al Jazeera

19:45 Heavy gunfire in Al Jumhuriya Street in Central Tripoli right now – Al Jazeera

19:41 @Freelibyanyouth: Eyewitness Now #Tripoli: there are people who are going out in to the streets, with #Gadaffi pictues and cheering his name incl my neighbors

19:19 @Freelibyanyouth reports message from tripoli now about heavy gunfire in Souq Al Jummah

According BBC Arabic, eyewitnesses reported hearing gunfire in Tripoli since around 19:15.

[LIBYA, 1:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local] The United States was unable to move any Americans out of Libya on Tuesday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We are working on this with Libyan authorities," he said.

The airport in Tripoli remains open but there are "challenging" circumstances at the airport, Crowley said. There are about 600 U.S. citizens in Libya, and several thousand with dual citizenship, he said.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/22/n- … /?on.cnn=1

February 22

10.11pm: Libya's defected interior minister has urged the Libyan army to join the people and respond to their "legitimate demands" echoing the language used by defecting Egyptian military leaders before the fall of president Hosni Mubarak.

10:04pm: "Gaddafi's No.2" Abdul Fatah Younis, Libyan minister of interior and army general - resigns. More to come.

10.00pm: Gaddafi spoke to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi via telephone, telling him that Libya is fine and the truth about events in the country are being shown on state media.

Twitter and FB are back on
Sporadic gun fire
Loads of fireworks
Cars with green flags roaming the streets

Those gunshots for celebrating or for what??

Maybe he will commit suicide by poisoning himself and blame it on foreign agents.

This is part of a Warden Message I just recieved... I can forward the email if you send me your email. 

A U.S. Government chartered ferry will  depart Tripoli from the
As-shahab Port in central Tripoli, located on the sea road across from
the Radisson Blu Mahari Hotel, for Valletta, Malta on Wednesday,
February 23. Processing of passengers will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m.
local time.  U.S. citizen travelers wishing to depart should proceed as
soon as possible after 9:00 a.m. to the pier and arrive no later than
10:00 a.m.  U.S. citizens will be processed on a first-come,
first-served basis, with priority given to persons with medical
emergencies or severe medical conditions. The ferry will depart no later
than 3:00 p.m.

U.S. citizens requesting evacuation on U.S. Government-chartered transport must sign paperwork promising to reimburse the U.S. Government for transportation costs at a later date.

Mo,

yeah we caught that too.  same when evac from Lebanon when Israel invaded.

Canadian government arranging evacuation flight for tomorrow (24/2). People are required to be at the airport as early as possible. Bring your identity papers, on piece of luggage (20 kg max), no hand carry.

You have to sign an undertaking to pay for the cost at a later date. The flight will take people to Rome and you will have to make your own arrangements from there.

Good luck.

Siddiqui

Hello all - I'm a producer for BBC News in London.

We're keen to speak to any British Nationals stuck in Libya or recently evacuated.  Please could you email me on [email protected] or call +44 20 862 49244 ?

If you have any friends or relatives in the country, I'd be really grateful if you could pass this message on if you get the chance.

Many thanks,

Henry Clarke Price

This is the latest speech from Gadaffi which has been translated and analysed.

His speech utters defiance of the protests and urges the people of Libya to take to the streets and fight the demonstrators.
He is still in Tripoli and refuses to stand down as leader.

http://www.suite101.com/content/gadaffi … ns-a351476

Howling gales, pissing rain and the roads are flooded.
Hopefully it will keep them all at home tonight. I can't hear any shooting so far. Fingers crossed.

Those of us still in Tripoli are fine. There are problems in the desert sites though. Most contracting companies have had all their equipment stolen, including vehicles by heavily armed gangs.

I am now in London.
Got the Afriquiyah flight this morning. 23 Feb. The drive to the airport from Siraj was totally uneventful at 6 am - no more than a dozen vehicles on the road. The airport forecourt and terminal area is PACKED with ticketless people mainly Africans trying to get out or just trying to stay safe. My group of 16 pushed our way in and checked in with long waits but not really much worse than the usual wait for AA if you don't arrive very early.
But there were only 38 people on the aeroplane - with seats for 148!!
No food on the flight and the cabin crew were London based, not Tripoli based.
Very glad to be here.
RG

At 5pm Wednesday, we arrived at airport upon hearing news that the British embassy sent down planes to evac British Nationals.
We waited until midnight-1am in the freezing cold, heavy wind and rain with no food only water. We eventually got onto the plane at around 3am next day and had to wade through a huge egyptian crowd inside and outside to get into the queue to place our luggage.
We eventually left the Tripoli airport at around 6-7ish Tripoli time and instead of being taken to Gatwick per what the FCO's said we were taken to Malta.
They said the plane was on the tarmac for about 6-7 hours and had over extended their legal flying operations, whatever that means.

I don't know if there is Internet in Benghazi right now, as it was closed down in Al Beida from Day 1 and is still not back on, so I will post this here in the Tripoli forum.

The road to Saloum border crossing (Egypt) is open, with some checkpoints (anti-government). We waited for the rumoured ferry/ies at Derna, but finally decided to take our chances and had no problems. The Egyptian border guards are doing their best, although the border post seems somewhat chaotic with thousands pouring through. If your passport is languishing in 'the Ministry', you can arrange to have somebody from the appropriate consulate meet you at the border to issue you with a temporary one. Please consider this option if you are stuck somewhere in eastern Libya, or are willing to make the long trip from the west.

At 5pm Wednesday, we arrived at airport upon hearing news that the British embassy sent down planes to evac British Nationals.
We waited until midnight-1am in the freezing cold, heavy wind and rain with no food only water. We eventually got onto the plane at around 4am next day and had to wade through a huge egyptian crowd inside and outside to get into the queue to place our luggage.
We eventually left the Tripoli airport at around 6-7ish Tripoli time and instead of being taken to Gatwick per what the FCO's said we were taken to Malta.
They said the plane was on the tarmac for about 6-7 hours and had over extended their legal flying operations, whatever that means. We waited for another hour and left to Malta.
We touched down in Malta, 45min flight, and was greeted with a nice buffet set up by the UK Embassy staff in Malta, makes up for no food since 12hours or so.
Right now at the Maltese airport 4:30 Tripoli time, we are being delayed again to wait for 65 brits coming from Tripoli to join our flight and head to gatwick.
I have to say the FCO's embassy staff who helped us in this ordeal worked very hard under the difficult circumstances and are not to blame for the delays and lack of organisation to deal with the Brits returning to the UK.
The blame lies squarely on the UK Goverment and the Foreign Secetary for dropping the ball and not being prepared for this situation, especially when Shell, BP and other countries were able to evacuate their people so quickly and the UKGov wasn't..
Also, all the commercial flights who cancelled on us, w****rs, the lot of you, especially British Airways.
Anyways, my best wishes go out to the rest of the brits stuck in the desert, I hope you all get out safetly to your families.

Our original 160ish passengers and the extra 65ish we picked up at malta finally arrived in gatwick at around midnight thursday after leaving malta at 7pm.
Another buffet and a bunch of embassy staff welcomed us at the airport lounge, the staff here were more interested in if we had enough sandwiches and biscuits than letting us get home to our families, which lead to a few raised voices and airport police being called to calm them down.
45mins later we're finally allowed to leave with some deciding to stay on to talk to the press, which im sure you will see on the bbc news...

It's going crazy right NOW in Tripoli

Stupid Germans, among others, are speaking of imposing sanctions on Libya.
Occidental idiotic duplicity at its best.

No less than 20000 are marching from Tajura toward Green Square. Military police/security joined them on the way.
Those in Tripoli: brace yourselves!

`guess in this highly hyped,hyper-sensitive[at times bordering on paronia]reporting by international media,all 4 one & one 4 all scurrying around & mass-exodus amidst hysteria [based on pers safety]; let us take a breather and decisive rain check!
On the very outset let us SALUTE THE unwaivering HUMAN SPIRIT OF THE LIBYAN MASSES WHO HAVE NOT LET A BULLET GRAZE AN EXPATRIATE OR A FOREIGNER [INADVERTANT LAPSES APART]!!They have kept the fight within their rank & file and have ensured that we are out of harm's way.KUDOS!!
Now we too are working expatriate living in the veritable heart of Tripoli for the past year or thereabout and are in no mood to run away whence the ships deck is burning [NO FALSE BRAVADO] ; BELIEVE YOU ME WHENCE I SAY THAT IN INDIA WE LOOSE MORE PEOPLE IN COMMON RIOTING [SOMETIMES EVEN ON TRIVIAL ISSUES] and STAMPEDE DURING PRAYERS THEN THE TOTAL LOSSES IN THIS DOMINO'S RIPPLE!!After all it's historically accredited fact that for all changes to come by one has to pay a price !May Allah be with all berieved families ;we can only but condole & share your sorrow PLEASE!All our neighbours[locals] have been very kind and supportive and we really appreciate the same.
Eventually Allaha's will shall reign and nothing else!!
Frankly speaking the situation on ground is definitly not as bad for us expatriates as has been painted and it is but an effort on our part to stand by our Libyan brotheren and thank them for the help/support so rendered.May truth & humanity prevail!

MoEl wrote:

Stupid Germans, among others, are speaking of imposing sanctions on Libya.
Occidental idiotic duplicity at its best.

MOE, any updates?