When USAir Flight 599 touches down in Bermuda on Thursday, it will be an extraordinary occasion with ordinary appearance.

At least, that is the hope and expectation of Government and Bermudians generally.

In part, the success of Bermuda's handling of the takeover of the Airport from the US Navy will be measured by just how routine the landing of the Boeing 757 turns out to be.

As jokes circulated about near air disasters while Bermudian controllers waited for pilots to say, "Good Morning'', a team has been working flat out to meet the June 1 takeover deadline which some felt could not be met.

"It's been so busy I haven't really had time to think about it,'' said Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons, the main Cabinet Minister responsible for the transfer. "It's like Christmas,'' he said of the transfer. "It's there before you realise it.'' Dr. Gibbons will be aboard the inaugural flight scheduled to arrive from New York at 11.25 a.m., along with Transport Minister the Hon. Maxwell Burgess, Bermuda International Airport manager Mr. Jack Gordon, and other officials.

The 182 passengers will be read a short statement advising them of the special nature of the flight and receive lapel pins with the letters BDA -- the call letters for the Island's Airport.

"It's a great sense of satisfaction that we've done as well as we have,'' Dr.

Gibbons said. "We were up against what seemed to be fairly large odds. It's a good feeling knowing that when the stakes were high, I think we've come through.'' Working backwards from the June 1 turnover date, the team set aggressive deadlines for awarding contracts and completing other tasks, then tried to stick to those dates as closely as possible.

"I felt a little bit like being in graduate school again,''' said Dr.

Gibbons, who has a doctorate in chemistry. "I think it would be dishonest to say that there weren't times when the thing looked overwhelming.'' Dr. Gibbons credited a "superb team'' in the Base Transition Office led by Mr. Ken Stubbings, the work of a Cabinet committee which met twice weekly and good technical cooperation from the US Navy.

"Everybody worked really well. They knew what they had to do and got on with it. We had one team that worked right through Cup Match in order to get the air ops. RFP (request for proposal) done.'' The five-year air operations contract that went to Serco Aviation Services Inc. of Canada was among several foreign contracts awarded worth millions of dollars. But increasingly, valuable work has been going to Bermudian firms for fencing, planning, security, and other areas.

"It was almost an entirely new universe for Bermuda,'' Dr. Gibbons said.

"Even though it probably looked like we were going outside a lot for assistance, we only went outside for very specific things.

Historic day for Bermuda and Airport "The longer-term thing is we've really created a totally new opportunity for Bermudians here, which we seem to have grasped with a certain amount of enthusiasm.'' American Mr. Lonnie Mitchell, whose wife Mrs. Linda Mitchell (nee Fox) was born on St. David's Island, comes to Bermuda as air traffic control services manager with more than 35 years of airport experience at Department of Defence installations in Sacramento, California, Alaska and other points in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia, Panama, Turkey, and Alaska.

Five Bermudians now being trained in England will join Mr. Mitchell and another spouse of a Bermudian later this year and soon replace five controllers brought to Bermuda from Canada. They will be responsible for visual control of aircraft within five nautical miles at a height up to 2,500 feet above sea level.

Air traffic control, firefighting, weather observing and forecasting, and ground electronics maintenance are among jobs that will be done by Bermudians.

Getting Serco's main air operations contract in place by the end of 1994 "was the keystone of the entire piece'', Dr. Gibbons said.

The team had expected things to taper off slightly in January, but "it got increasingly busy'', he said.

Thousands of air miles were logged by Dr. Gibbons and other Bermuda officials, as talks were held with International Civil Aviation Organisation officials in Montreal, the Federal Aviation Administration in New York, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and other aviation officials in London. Trips were made to airports in Vancouver and the Caribbean.

While the US Navy served Bermuda with high standards, civilian airports had to meet still higher standards and "I think we're delivering to the user in some respects a better product,'' Dr. Gibbons said.

Millions of dollars in new and improved radar and other equipment had been installed.

While the Navy ran the Airport with 120 to 140 people, Bermuda and its contractor would use about 60 employees, he said.

"I think the military has different objectives,'' he said. "We've tried to take a slightly more commercial approach in terms of the cost/benefits and what it takes to run it.'' The next challenge would be finding new uses for the Base lands. "It's a very different management problem,'' he said. "With the Airport we knew clearly what our deadline was, we knew clearly what we had to do and we had to get on with it and there weren't too many ways to go about it.'' Does he ever stay awake nights worrying about an airline disaster, one that could have as easily happened under American as under Bermudian control? "In this sort of thing, you plan for the worst, and you hope for the best,'' Dr.

Gibbons said. "We've been as careful and as thorough as we could.'' Carriers serving Bermuda express no concerns. USAir, which with five daily flights is the Island's major carrier, is "delighted to be the first service to experience the Bermuda Government's handling of the Bermuda airfield'', said local manager Mr. Herbie Siggins.

He expressed "complete confidence'' in Bermudian control of the Airport and "absolutely no concerns whatsoever''.

And will the local tower greet the crew of Flight 599 with a warm, Bermudian "Good Morning'' on Thursday? "We may or may not,'' Mr. Mitchell said with a chuckle.

TOWERING VIEW -- Air Traffic Control Services manager Mr. Lonnie Mitchell surveys the skies around Bermuda International Airport as he prepares for the first landing of a flight under Bermudian control on Thursday.

Photos by Tamell Simons BRIGHT FORECASTS -- Mr. Lyle Millett (left) and Mr. Rick Fleetwood provide weather services at the Airport, which Bermuda takes over from the US Navy on Thursday.

STANDING BY -- A crash/fire/rescue team at the Airport is hoping for the best, but is also prepared for the worst. Here, crash captain Mr. Don Francis (left) instructs well-known local cricketer Mr. Clarkie Trott.