Deployment Sites
Dakar, Senegal
West African capital and Atlantic springboard—one of the African cities ARIA crews knew from the schedule and from their stories.

Dakar, on the Cap-Vert peninsula, is the westernmost major city on the African mainland. Its airport has long been a stop for aircraft crossing between Europe, South America, and southern Africa, and a gateway into West Africa.
ARIA deployment lists and crew stories place Dakar among African staging cities. Randy L. Losey’s “Big Night Out” account is set in Dakar; other West African trip narratives on flyARIA describe the mix of mission flying and liberty that came with African deployments. The city offered fuel, crew rest, and a position for Atlantic or African continental tracks.
From orbit Dakar’s peninsula is a bright tip on the dark Atlantic. For ARIA crews it was a named overnight on a long string of names stretching from Ascension to Johannesburg.
Milestones
- GeographyFar west Africa — Natural Atlantic crossing and West African hub.
- ARIA storiesCrew accounts — Dakar appears in first-hand deployment narratives on flyARIA.
- Deployment listAfrican staging — Listed among ARIA sites on the worldwide map.
On flyARIA
- Your Story: Big Night Out — Randy L. Losey
- Your Story: West African Trip — Neil Hendricks
- Ascension Island
- Cape Town
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Photographs, TDY notes, and corrections from ARIA crews and families belong here. Email [email protected] — no forms. Nothing is published as personal recollection without a source.
Summary original to flyARIA.com. Photograph: NASA. Works of the U.S. Government are generally in the public domain in the United States; credit does not imply endorsement. Map coordinates are approximate.