DH.60 Moth, he stopped at Rutbah Wells. In his autobiography, The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Chichester described it as follows: "Rutbah Wells was a romantic spot in the middle of the desert, a large square fort with buildings backed up inside to the high walls. There were camel caravans inside, and a squad of Iraqi infantry." He also wrote that there was an Imperial Airways mechanic stationed at the fort, who helped him repair his plane, and that he stayed the night in an Iraqi officer's room. On 19 December 1934, the aircraft Uiver was on a non-scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta). On 21 December, sixteen kilometers south of Rutbah Wells, the plane was found, completely destroyed, by an RAF pilot. The plane was a KLM DC-2. It was the plane's first flight after coming second in the MacRobertson Air Race that took place in October 1934. All four cockpit crew and three passengers were killed, including Dutch media magnate Dominique Willem Berretty. An investigation into the crash determined that it was likely the bad weather that caused the crash, and that "the bad flying characteristics of the DC-2 during heavy rain were suspected." Anglo-Iraqi War During the Anglo-Iraqi War in 1941 forces loyal to Rashid Ali took control of the Fort on 2 May 1941. As a response bombs were dropped by RAF Blenheim V bombers from No. 203 Squadron RAF on and around the fort. The fort was retaken by Arab Legion forces with support from No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF after the fort defenders left overnight on 10 May. Gulf War Prior to the Gulf War, the Iraqi government installed an Intercept Operations Center (IOC) in Ar-Rutbah, which is designed to provide local air defence control. The various IOCs were linked through an extensive optical fiber communications net. The IOCs were subordinate to the National Air Defense Operations Center (ADOC), based in Baghdad, that controlled air defense nationally. In the late 1980s, the Iraqi government also expanded its facility at Ar-Rutbah to produce acids and other chemical compounds. It may also have established a complex called 'Project 9320' in the area, which had three factories to produce secondary chemicals used in manufacturing nerve gas. On 22 January 1991, an RAF Tornado (ZA467, part of No. 16 Squadron) crashed into the ground at Ar-Rutbah whilst on a low level ground attack mission. Both