“We cannot be held responsible for continued flight into the prohibited airspace, sir,” the Baku controller warned. “I will continue to provide radar service, but I am not in contact with any of the Russian aircraft, and I cannot ensure safe separation from them. I have also observed considerable meaconing, interference, jamming, and intrusion on my radar displays and on all my air-traffic landline and wireless communications channels. I cannot be held responsible if communications are lost, for any reason. Again, I strongly advise you to turn back. Do you understand, sir?”
“I understand, Baku,” the pilot responded. “Are you in contact with the Russian controllers or agencies who filed NOTAM Zulu-Three?”
“Negative, SAM One-eight-zero,” the controller replied. “We are monitoring them on GUARD emergency frequency, but they have not responded to any of our calls.”
“Roger, SAM One-eight-zero.” The pilot turned to his first officer and asked, “So our closest emergency-divert base…?”
“Baku, Azerbaijani Republic, almost directly under us,” the first officer replied, punching up the Global Positioning System navigation information. “I’ll give them a call right now.” The first officer used the secondary radio to give the approach controllers at Baku notice that they were in the area. “We’re checked in, but we do not have clearance to land. That will only be issued if we need it.”
It was indeed a strange situation: International NOTAM Zulu-Three, issued by the Russian Federation, was one of the most strongly worded messages in years, warning all aircraft away from Turkmenistan’s airspace and further saying that any aircraft flying within five hundred kilometers of the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashkhabad, would be fired upon without warning. But at the same time Turkmenistan was still allowing flights to cross into its airspace; the government of Turkmenistan was not restricting transit for any civil air carriers, even in and out of Mary, the scene of the heaviest fighting so far. Ashkhabad International Airport was still open, as were the civil airfields at Krasnovodsk, Nebit-Dag, and Charjew.
The Turkmen government was doing all it could to make everything look like “business as usual,” even though it definitely appeared as if the wheels were slowly but surely coming off this train. Despite all the reassurances, the Special Air Mission flight, carrying the former president of the United States and a U.S. State Department official, stayed as far away as possible from Turkmen airspace. It had enough range to fly all the way north to Moscow before turning south if necessary, but it settled for getting clearance through Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Kazakh airspace before heading directly for the Turkmen coast on the Caspian Sea.
The flight made a routine handoff from Turkish controllers at Erzurum to English-speaking Russian-sector controllers at Baku, which passed the flight off routinely as it made its way across the Caucasus Mountains and out over the Caspian Sea. The lights of thousands of oil wells and fishing boats on the Caspian made it look like a metropolis down below, contrasting sharply with the almost lightless landscape beyond as they approached the seemingly endless desert steppes of Central Asia. In just a few minutes they would be handed off to air-traffic controllers from their destination, Ashkhabad; in less than half an hour, they would begin the descent for landing.
“SAM One-eight-zero, contact Ashkhabad Control.” The Baku controller read off a frequency — not the usual one in use by this sector, but reassigning and combining sectors and controllers was not unusual, especially at night, when fewer flights traveled in remote areas.
“Roger, SAM One-eight-zero, good night.” The first officer switched frequencies, then radioed, “Ashkhabad Control, SAM One-eight-zero, with you at flight level three-nine-zero, six-zero kilometers east of Baku.”
The reply was interrupted by frequent squeals and static — again not unusual for this area of the world and its antiquated radio systems. “Calling Ashkhabad Control, please repeat,” the controller responded in broken but understandable English. Although English was the universal aviation language, it was not always well understood in some of the more remote areas of the planet, especially in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. The SAM pilot repeated his report slowly, carefully. “Thank you, SAM One-eight-zero, at three-niner-zero,” the controller responded through the static. “You are in receipt of NOTAM Zulu-Three, sir?”
“Yes we are,” the pilot responded. “We accept responsibility in case there’s a loss of communications for any reason.”
“Very well, sir.” They proceeded in silence for several minutes. Roughly halfway across the Caspian Sea, the C-32A crew heard a controller — it was hard to tell if it was the same one or not — say, “SAM One-eight-zero, turn right thirty degrees, fly direct Krasnovodsk, direct Ashkhabad. Expect descent in one-zero minutes.”
“Direct Krasnovodsk, direct Ashkhabad, SAM One-eight-zero.” The first officer called up the intersection on his flight-management system, and the big airliner banked right in response. Their original flight plan had them well north of the usual routing through this airspace. This vector and rerouting, the first officer saw, would place them squarely over Krasnovodsk, the Russian port city on the Caspian Sea, and on a direct route to the capital, bypassing all the usual checkpoints and approach corridors.
Something was happening. They didn’t know what, but things were starting to look a little haywire.
The new frequency was fairly quiet, just a few other planes on it, a Kazakhstan Airlines flight and a Gulf Air charter. The first officer could not hear any responses from the other flights, indicating that the controller was indeed talking and receiving on several different frequencies at one time.
Things seemed to be progressing smoothly. The captain called for the before-descent checklist and got up to step twelve when suddenly, through a rasp of static and loud, irritating pops, they heard, “SAM One-eight-zero, this is Ashkhabad Control on GUARD,” in both English and Russian. “GUARD” was the international emergency frequency, which all aircraft were required to monitor at all times. “If you hear me, contact Ashkhabad Control on one-three-seven point six or UHF frequency two-three-four point niner-two. Acknowledge with an ident if you hear me. Over.”
The first officer punched the ident button on his transponder — which would encircle their radar-data block with a bright, flashing identification box — then keyed his microphone: “Ashkhabad Control, SAM One-eight-zero, how do you read?”
“Loud and clear, sir, how about me?”
“Loud and clear as well. We just received a message on GUARD frequency to contact you on a different frequency. Did you give us a frequency change?”
“Negative. Remain this frequency, please.”
“SAM One-eight-zero, wilco.”
But the message on GUARD repeated, this time much more urgently and with a terrifying warning: “SAM One-eight-zero, warning, unidentified high-speed aircraft are approaching you at your seven o’clock, forty miles. Turn right sixty degrees immediately, vectors out over the Caspian to avoid the NOTAM Zulu-Three airspace. Please acknowledge on GUARD. Over.”
“Ashkhabad Control, do you copy that radio transmission on GUARD channel?”
“Affirmative, SAM One-eight-zero. We are investigating. Remain on your present heading, direct Krasnovodsk, direct Ashkhabad. Disregard the instructions being broadcast on GUARD. If two-way communications are lost or disrupted, you are cleared to Ashkhabad International. After Krasnovodsk, descend and maintain flight level two- five-zero, then FMS VNAV profile at or above nine thousand feet at Syrdarja, cleared for the ILS runway two-seven approach. We will clear the airspace for you if communications are lost. Do you copy?” The first officer repeated the instructions.
The warnings on GUARD were getting more strident by the second. “Do you want me to shut that off?” the first officer asked the captain, placing his fingers on the guard switch.
The captain was about to say yes, but instead flipped his mike button to GUARD. “This is SAM One-eight- zero,” the captain said. “Who the hell is this?”
“Thank God!” came the reply in excellent English. But the snapping and hissing on the frequency were growing louder — and it all sounded ominous, as if the frequency was being jammed or disrupted. “This is Colonel Okiljon Mirsafoyev. I am the facility chief of Ashkhabad Control. You may contact me on the listed frequencies in the International Flight Information Publications or via datalink to your embassy, but I must issue this warning to you in the clear. I don’t know who’s doing it, or how, or why, but you were handed off to an unlisted and completely incorrect frequency by an unknown person. I was notified by Baku Control minutes ago. I repeat, the controller you are speaking to is
“Be advised, there are Russian radar planes and air-defense fighters in your vicinity. You need to turn right immediately and get away from the Turkmen frontier…. SAM One-eight-zero, one unidentified pop-up aircraft
