Over two days in February Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft played a central role in dramatic missions to rescue UK and other European oil workers from the Libyan desert, as the North African country descended into civil war. The media coverage of the rescue missions predictably played up the role of Special Air Service personnel who flew on the RAF aircraft to secure the airstrips in Libya's desert interior, but the crisis has seen more widespread use of military air assets that would be apparent from watching 24-hour rolling news channels.
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