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Air Sorties Increase Again

Aired March 26, 2003 - 13:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: U.S. warplanes attacked communications sites in the Iraqi capital, knocking out the state-run TV, at least for a few hours.
CNN's Gary Tuchman is at an air base not far from the Iraqi border. He's joining us now live.

Gary what are they saying where you are?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it's kind of hard to hear your question. I apologize. It's very loud here. We're right next to the active runway here at this air base.

We were talking a short time ago about the A-10 Warthogs that are there, and these behind me are the A-10 Warthogs. And you can see, there's a pilot sitting in the seat, getting ready to leave right now as we speak. The one right next to it, there also is a pilot in the seat, getting ready to leave.

It's a very busy night here at this base near the Iraqi border. A lot different than last night when we've had rain, wind, lightning, and thunder.

Normally, for the past week, they've had about 250 to 300 sorties at this location alone. It was only 188 yesterday, but they're expecting to get back up to 300 today.

Air Force officials are telling us, though, overall they're expecting fewer sorties today than they have in other days, and the reason for that is because they have destroyed much of the preplanned targets they had talked about before the war began. There are still emerging targets and other pre-planned targets. But because so many pre-planned targets have been destroyed, you will not see as many planes above Iraq as you did the first few nights of the war.

Now I do want to show you something that happened about 35 minutes ago. This is a routine thing that happens when warplanes come in for a landing. But because this has been going on for a half an hour, it's a little different than we've seen over the past few days.

You can see in the horizon flashing lights over there. Those are emergency vehicles and fire engines. There is a warplane back there -- it's so far away it's hard for us to tell what kind it was. But when that plane was coming in for a landing 35 minutes ago, we heard sort of a boom. There's been no fire or smoke . And what often happens, pilots will call and say I'm suspicious about something. There's a bad gauge, or there's a problem with my tire, or there's something wrong with the plane; I would like emergency vehicles to meet me. The emergency vehicles did meet this plane after the plane landed, after we heard the boom. They've been there for 35 minutes. As we said, we've seen no fire or smoke, so most likely, it's routine. And you can see the vehicles right now are starting to move.

As we talk, warplanes are coming in from Iraq. They just landed. They're coming down the taxiway as we speak.

About 35 minutes ago, we had still another missile alert here. The sirens went off, as they did in Kuwait City. Also, when the sirens went off, everyone here put on their chemical suits, put on their gas masks, went back in the bunkers until they got the all-clear five minutes later.

Wolf, I apologize for not being able to hear you better. That's what happens when you're at a very noisy and very busy air base. Back to you.

BLITZER: No need to apologize at all, Gary Tuchman. He's our embedded correspondent at an air base along the Iraqi border. Thanks very much, Gary.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 26, 2003 - 13:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: U.S. warplanes attacked communications sites in the Iraqi capital, knocking out the state-run TV, at least for a few hours.
CNN's Gary Tuchman is at an air base not far from the Iraqi border. He's joining us now live.

Gary what are they saying where you are?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it's kind of hard to hear your question. I apologize. It's very loud here. We're right next to the active runway here at this air base.

We were talking a short time ago about the A-10 Warthogs that are there, and these behind me are the A-10 Warthogs. And you can see, there's a pilot sitting in the seat, getting ready to leave right now as we speak. The one right next to it, there also is a pilot in the seat, getting ready to leave.

It's a very busy night here at this base near the Iraqi border. A lot different than last night when we've had rain, wind, lightning, and thunder.

Normally, for the past week, they've had about 250 to 300 sorties at this location alone. It was only 188 yesterday, but they're expecting to get back up to 300 today.

Air Force officials are telling us, though, overall they're expecting fewer sorties today than they have in other days, and the reason for that is because they have destroyed much of the preplanned targets they had talked about before the war began. There are still emerging targets and other pre-planned targets. But because so many pre-planned targets have been destroyed, you will not see as many planes above Iraq as you did the first few nights of the war.

Now I do want to show you something that happened about 35 minutes ago. This is a routine thing that happens when warplanes come in for a landing. But because this has been going on for a half an hour, it's a little different than we've seen over the past few days.

You can see in the horizon flashing lights over there. Those are emergency vehicles and fire engines. There is a warplane back there -- it's so far away it's hard for us to tell what kind it was. But when that plane was coming in for a landing 35 minutes ago, we heard sort of a boom. There's been no fire or smoke . And what often happens, pilots will call and say I'm suspicious about something. There's a bad gauge, or there's a problem with my tire, or there's something wrong with the plane; I would like emergency vehicles to meet me. The emergency vehicles did meet this plane after the plane landed, after we heard the boom. They've been there for 35 minutes. As we said, we've seen no fire or smoke, so most likely, it's routine. And you can see the vehicles right now are starting to move.

As we talk, warplanes are coming in from Iraq. They just landed. They're coming down the taxiway as we speak.

About 35 minutes ago, we had still another missile alert here. The sirens went off, as they did in Kuwait City. Also, when the sirens went off, everyone here put on their chemical suits, put on their gas masks, went back in the bunkers until they got the all-clear five minutes later.

Wolf, I apologize for not being able to hear you better. That's what happens when you're at a very noisy and very busy air base. Back to you.

BLITZER: No need to apologize at all, Gary Tuchman. He's our embedded correspondent at an air base along the Iraqi border. Thanks very much, Gary.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com