Leg 5: YDRN (Darwin International, Australia) to WPDL (Comoro, Dili, East Timor)
Date: 13
September, 2003
Time:
2.50 - 4.31pm
Distance:
402.6nm
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Once a Portuguese colony, East Timor declared itself independent in 1976, only to be invaded by Indonesia nine days later. 100,000 to 250,000 people have lost their lives since then, and in 1996, pro-independence spokesmen Belo and Ramos-Horta were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring about a peaceful resolution between the East Timorese and Indonesians.
In 1999, the people voted for complete independence, but the militia moved in and razed Dili and other towns. Thousands of people disappeared and weeks of violence passed before UN troops restored the peace. Pressure from the international community forced Indonesia to pull her troops out; in May 2002, East Timor became the world's newest democracy.
Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the U.N.'s mission in Iraq who died when the U.N. HQ was bombed last month, was also the U.N.'s top man in East Timor; he arrived in November 1999 and left just after May 2002. One wonders why people like Sergio have to be extinguised so abruptly...peacemakers, they're really short in supply nowadays...
We
take off from Darwin, going northwest across the ocean...
Nothing
to see, just an empty ocean until a tiny strip of land comes into view.
We'll
go across the island, and turn left...
...
go straight and turn left 180 degrees to go into the downwind leg...
...then
turn right again to land on runway 26.
The
place is just beautiful, with rolling hills to the south of the airport...
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