Editorial December 1

The entrance to the airport was blocked and off to the side sat a large army fire truck.

It was clear from the outset this was not your ordinary Monday afternoon at the airport.

People sensed something was up even if the army truck was a bit of a dead giveaway.

Other than that the only obvious clue was one guy holding an awfully large two-way radio and some plain-clothed military types casually milling around.

It was when the guy with the two-way called to his mates “they're coming in over the hills’’ the relaxed atmosphere changed instantly.

Within seconds a faint whisper in the distance could be heard.

Seconds later the whisper turned into a roar, yet they were flying so fast and low the makers of the noise remained unseen.

Until suddenly they appeared out of nowhere, Australian Defence Force Black Hawks swooping down onto the Illawarra Regional Airport.

One of the Black Hawks briefly touched down beside the Boeing 747 at the site, while the others stayed in formation, hovering just metres away from each other.

Onlookers were forced back as the downdraft from the choppers blew a cloud of dust and debris across the area.

No sooner had it touched down than the chopper which had grounded rose to the sky again.

As quickly and as ferociously as they had arrived, the Black Hawks took off again and vanished.

They were quickly followed by the ADF personnel.

One airport staffer could be heard asking the guy with the radio, “was that it?’’ too which he replied “yep’’ and then quickly moved on.

They had clearly achieved what they wanted to achieve out of the training mission.

While an awesome spectacle, yesterday’s performance was part of a series of planned counter-terrorism training exercises happening across our region over the next week.

The vast majority of them will be around the southern areas such as Shellharbour.

Police have sent out a number of messages warning people about these exercises, but said for obvious reasons they are unable to release any detail.