Omni reps visit Shannon following aircraft vandalism

REPRESENTATIVES of Omni Air travelled to Shannon following an act of vandalism on one of their aircraft just before Christmas.

While a Shannon airport spokesman declined to comment or to confirm the meeting took place, it is understood that the Omni representatives were in Shannon within days of the incident.
While no one has been arrested in connection with it as yet, a statement appeared online in the Galway Alliance Against War’s December bulletin, purporting to have come from one of those involved in the action.
“Direct action is no substitute for mass political action for peace, nevertheless it felt great in the early hours of last Tuesday morning cutting the hydraulics on all the landing gear of the US troop transport plane,” it stated.
In the statement, it was claimed that supporting employment in Shannon didn’t justify allowing the US military to use the airport. “We will be criticised for jeopardising jobs in Shannon. But such jobs are created on the basis of killing innocent people in foreign lands. That is no basis for job creation. Our stand is the same as the stand taken by the men and women in Easter 1916 against imperialist war.”
The individual also claimed that Irish neutrality is being breached. “Irish democracy has been subverted on so many levels and no less so on the Irish neutrality front. Despite the overwhelming majority of Irish people supporting the concept of Irish neutrality, successive Irish governments have become accessories to mass murder in Afghanistan and Iraq and they have been directly involved in torture through allowing Shannon Airport to be turned into a US war port. Disgust at these developments led to us immobilising this US troop transporter.
“It was also as a gesture of respect for people like Malalai Joya of Afghanistan, who had called at a conference in Bonn for acts of solidarity with her country.”
The individual also called for support from President Michael D Higgins. “President Higgins in his inaugural speech offered to ‘champion’ those who ‘make their own imaginative and practical contribution to the shaping of our shared future’. We look forward to Ireland’s new ‘dear leader’ championing our act of peace last Tuesday morning, December 20, 2011.”
The bulletin included some details of the damage done to the Omni aircraft. “Beforehand we agreed we would immobilise the hydraulics of all the landing gear; the metal tubes that run vertically along the shaft holding the wheels. Four sets of landing gear were sabotaged – three in the middle, one at the front. This was all pre-planned. While that peace work was being completed, another peace activist sprayed the words ‘Peace – US troops out’ on the side of the plane.”