On September 26 in the evening in the Manas airport two planes, an American and a Kyrgyz one collided on the ground. The collision, luckily, hasn’t left any dead or injured, but became yet another troubling sign of the problematic operational coexistence of the civilian and military aviation in the Kyrgyz airport Manas. No reports of the investigative group, created on order of Kurmanbek Bakiev, have yet been released but there are several versions floating about causes of this incident.

According to Manas airport officials Kyrgyz passenger plane TU 154 was about to take off while an American refueling plane KS 135 was moving away from the runaway after landing. For some unclear yet reasons the pilot of the TU 154 was not aware about the presence of the KS 135 and struck it. The fire was ignited on the military plane on the ground. A number of major destructions of the left wing of the passenger plane with 61 people on board were discovered after the take off. Fortunately, the pilot managed to track the problem and landed the plane before it was too late.

While the special group in Kyrgyzstan was about to start its investigation of the accident in Russian TV Channel “Russia” featured a news report suggesting, in a slightly ironical tone, that probably the incident was caused by the fact that American crew was not able to understand the English of the Kyrgyz flight controller. I would, personally, consider this version as a legitimate one, but the main question to be asked again after this accident should be more general. This collision again makes me think that something is fundamentally wrong with the fact that the military base is stationed on the territory of the civilian airport. This question has already been raised several times and now it is not about political manipulations when Kyrgyz officials were trying to bargain with Americans. Now it is about security and we all should be concerned about it.

It should be emphasized, that this collision is not the first one. Earlier this year another accident, involving an American military plane and a bus, occurred, sparking discussions about the danger that is naturally produced by the close vicinity of the military base and the airport. This seems to be the precedent in the history of aviation. 5 years ago Kyrgyzstan let American military planes be stationed at in the only airport in Bishkek and it was O’K till a certain point. It was actually a big fun for passengers to observe American military planes on the landing strip. It is not funny any more. In the newsreport of the TV station NTS yesterday it was mentioned that when the refueling plane got ignited the passenger plane already took off. Can you imagine that, for some reason, it was still on the ground close to the KS-135? Should we than call everything that could have happened, using the language of defense intellectuals, a “collateral damage”? But we are not at war and some decisions should be made as soon as possible to avoid such accidents. Here I’m not advocating any ultimatums or renewing talks on the status of American military presence in Kyrgyzstan. It is the easiest thing to turn discussions into the political dimension where it doesn’t belong. Instead the technicalities of the military base presence in the civilian airport should be carefully considered. Noone needs to break agreements about military cooperation but authorities, both Kyrgyz and American, should think twice before resuming full-scale operations in Manas airport in Bishkek.