Libya

Politics | Society

Politics | Society

Ghaddafi's private pilot: "I want to leave!"

Odd Birger Johansen © Private/Facebook

The private pilot of Moammar Ghaddafi, a Norwegian citizen, says he wants to leave Libya as soon as possible, but may have to wait for the Libyan leader.

57-year-old Odd Birger Johansen for the last year has been the pilot of the private jet of Colonel Ghaddafi. He is now in Tripoli, together with his wife and daughter that had chosen this unhappy moment to visit him for a holiday in Libya.



Mr Johansen today spoke to the private Norwegian broadcaster 'TV2' - using a Skype phone as mot other communications were closed down. The pilot said he wants to evacuate Libya as soon as possible.



However, he told 'TV2', "I am under contract, so I have to follow up on that if there should be a need for my services. But right now, the way I feel it is that things are burning around me ... and then I don't want to ... I am not a hero, I will go home," Mr Johansen concluded.



Mr Johansen, if able to leave, would not be the first to desert Colonel Ghaddafi. Several pilots already have fled the country, both from military aircrafts and from Libya's civilian airline.



These pilots have given shocking statements about Colonel Ghaddafi's plans to strike back against protesters. Two military pilots, defecting with their jets in Malta, said they had been ordered to bomb civilians in Benghazi. A defected civilian pilot today confirmed that the airliner Afriqiyah was transporting "hundreds of mercenaries from Africa" to various protest hotspots in Libya.



During the last three days, a

Tripoli resident filming riots in the streets from his window © Anonymous/afrol News

By staff writer

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