HAW reaches 4,000 flight hours while bringing back home Hungarian soldiers

April 5, 2011 defpro.com

PÁPA AIR BASE, Hungary | Some 118 Hungarian soldiers returned home from their ISAF mission in Afghanistan late Friday night at Pápa Air Base and on that same redeployment flight the Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) reached 4,000 flight hours. HAW has had an intense winter – it reached 3 000 flight hours in early December 2010, so a thousand more came a little sooner than expected. “Such intensity is not possible at all times, but we are content we have been able to fulfill the SAC nations’ requests, says Heavy Airlift Commander, Colonel John Zazworsky, US Air Forces. SAC (Strategic Airlift Capability) is a cooperative effort of 12 nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States. It is stationed in Pápa Air Base, Hungary. Since the delivery of the first aircraft in July 2009, the HAW has flown over 4 000 FH hours and delivered more than 13,800 tons of cargo and over 6,000 passengers for the nations over 6 continents including missions to Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Africa and Europe.