Honeywell Forge Navigation Database Team Supports Afghan Airlift Missions

With the collapse of the Afghan government in August, the U.S. government enlisted the help of U.S. commercial airlines to take part in the airlift missions. Operational safety was a top priority, and pilots needed access to timely, accurate navigation data to successfully accomplish their missions – and they needed it fast.

Many airlines and business aircraft operators rely on Honeywell Forge Navigation Databases to support the safer, more efficient operation of their aircraft fleets. The Afghan evacuation was an extreme case, as it involved hundreds of commercial aircraft flying in and out of unfamiliar airfields without much advance notice. So when requests for new databases came in from participating airlines, the Navigation Database team sprang into action.

The Honeywell Forge Navigation Database team jumped in during the busiest part of their AIRAC cycle to help many of these airlines. Team members took immediate action to quickly deliver fresh databases to seven different airlines, enabling tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies to evacuate the region. In one case, the team produced a database in just ninety-seven minutes from the time the request came in until the database was ready for the major airline customer to download. Even though there was an extremely tight timeline and there were lives at stake, the team got the job done in a fraction of the typical time. 

Supporting humanitarian causes is nothing new to the Honeywell Forge Navigation Database team. In fact, at the same time they were helping with the Afghan evacuation, the team was providing updated databases for cargo airlines flying earthquake relief missions to Haiti and carrying COVID-19 vaccines to South American countries. The Navigation Database team is grateful and proud to provide this crucial piece of support to keep customers mission-ready.