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Canadian charter flight leaves Tripoli empty

26 February 2011 00:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A flight chartered by Canada to evacuate its citizens from Libya left Tripoli empty after panicked Canadians fled the country by other means before it arrived, a government source said Friday, APA reports quoting AFP.
Almost 200 Canadians, including 105 who were left waiting at the Tripoli airport for an earlier plane that was nixed by an insurer on Thursday, found passage aboard other flights and boats.
They safely arrived in Britain, Malta, Madrid and Turkey overnight, the source said.
When a second charter flight arrived in Tripoli from Amman, Jordan Thursday evening, there were no Canadians or citizens from countries cooperating with Canada on the evacuation at the airport, the source explained.
The jetliner was granted only two hours to land, pick up passengers and depart, and so it had to leave with no passengers.
"Today, Canadians continue to be evacuated with the help of like-minded countries," Lynn Meahan, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, told AFP.
"We have another (Canadian) charter now in the air, expected to arrive in Tripoli at 12:45 local time," she added.
As well, a Canadian military C-17 transport aircraft has been diverted from Germany to Rome and is on standby to go to fetch up to 156 more passengers, if needed.
And Canadian Governor General David Johnston, who was traveling to Kuwait on Friday, is also prepared to lend his airplane to help in the evacuation.
Late Thursday, government spokesman Dimitri Soudas wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter that "nearly 200" Canadians had been evacuated from Libya.
This included virtually all of the more than 100 who had been stranded at Tripoli’s airport, he said.
But confusion spread when the charter flight from Amman returned empty from Libya, where longtime strongman Moamer Kadhafi is battling a nationwide revolt.
Suddenly, Canadians began popping up at airports throughout Europe, saying they had fled Libya aboard flights chartered by Britain, France, Spain and the United States.
Of 353 Canadians registered at the Canadian embassy in Libya, 213 requested help in leaving the North African country amid a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters.