From 1996 to 2004 I worked as a physician at a high-security detention center in the Stockholm area. One of my tasks was to assist in deportations of foreign prisoners after they have served prison time. Why the need for a doctor? Well the prisoner could simulate to be sick, make himself sick or be a physical danger to the flight. I also cared for the medical well-being of the prisoner, especially when they were tied up. Sometimes we could fly with a regular airline, but in case of a prisoner that was regarded very dangerous we had to tie up the prisoner tightly and charter a special airplane for the transport, like a Learjet with long-range fuel tanks.

After my first trip to Africa i began listening to ATC (Air Traffic Control) on shortwave 11.300 kHz USB. The purpose for ATC on shortwave is to check speed and altitude while cruising. On 11.300 kHz you could hear ATC operators in Tripoli, Nairobi, Cairo, Khartoum and others. I loved to listen about midnight here in Sweden. One ATC-operator stood out in the crowd, the shouting lady in Khartoum! The other operators sounded very professional, but this lady shouted with a strong voice: Khartoum! Khartoum! almost as she was calling in her boys for dinner…

In August 2000, (NB: before 9-11), our company was on a night flight, Kenya 117, (a Boeing 767) from Amsterdam to Nairobi. As it was very calm I kindly asked if I could join the pilots in the cockpit! No problem! Captain and second officer were from Australia, but the first officer was Ms Barbara Green from Canada. I spent some wonderful hours in the cockpit and was even served tea along the crew in the cockpit. Sometimes we met other aircrafts in the same corridor, but on different altitudes. The pilots greeted each other by flashing the lights. I remember seeing the stars in the sky, and the flames from the oil rigs in Libya.

The Rockwell Collins transeiver was set on 11.300 Khz. The frequency was set by thumb-wheels(!). First Officer Barbara Green was managing the radio. I told her that I used to listen to 11.300 kHz and I especially had noted the shouting lady in Khartoum. Guess which operator was on duty in Khartoum that night, The Shouting Lady! Barbara Green then said: “Let’s see if we can wind her up a little”…

Epilogue: I had contact with Barbara Green a couple of years after our encounter, but later lost it. Last time I heard from her she said that she had difficulties getting flight simulator time, and that she worked in an hospital in Toronto scanning body temperature of people entering the hospital… (SARS epidemic) Just recently I have found a couple of casette recordings where I have recorded Barbara Green on flight Kenya 117, from my home near Stockholm. It’s just short snippets of calls, and I have not digitized them yet…