8
GA
/ Vol. 5 / No.9 / SEPTEMBER 2013
by Richard Browne
Flying in Africa
One bright sunny day in Pakistan,
I was scheduled to fly with a gent
named Tony. A jovial and full
of life type, who is infectiously
positive. We enjoyed working
together as we would always enjoy
a lot of laughs and in general, took
things lightly whichever way they
came. In fact, one day we were
told by the Red Cross that we were
having too much fun. We laughed
even more wondering how they
had a yardstick to measure it.
We were destined to be
stuck at a remote pierced-steel
planking runway up in the
Hindu-Kush mountain range
with a technical fault. That is, a
story for another time though.
This day it was pretty standard,
a run from Peshawar over to Kabul
in Afghanistan, offload and upload,
then head over the mountains to an
airport in the north called Mazar-i-
Sharif. This town was very close to
the Uzbek border and the word was
that the boundary was guarded by
the Russian Spetsnaz. The rumour
went on to say that they had not
signed any protocols, therefore
would fire upon any aircraft, even
one bearing Red Cross symbols.
Neither of us knew if this
was the truth or not but we made
sure we were never anywhere
near the fence between the two
countries. It was a rumour we
didn't want to prove right.
The first leg went off just fine
and the wait around on the apron
in Kabul was always a social
affair, we'd catch up with the
Danish crew who were operating
the United Nations contracts
out of Islamabad. We envied
them, they had easy access to
beer, we had to brew our own.
The loading done, we taxied
out and took-off, turning right for
Mazar. The approach and landing
went as standard and we renewed
contacts with the delegates in
the field there. They enjoyed
the aircraft arrival as it meant
they were being re-supplied and
also receiving personal mail.
We bid our goodbyes and
headed back for Peshawar. Not
twenty minutes into the flight, we
were asked by Kabul ATC to please
divert and spare some time to look
for a 727 that had disappeared
on it's way from Kabul to Mazar.
Tony and l both recall having seen
it take off from the capital while
we were on the ground there.
We flew along its track and
then began to search either side
of it, constantly watching the
fuel gauges. We had two aircraft
in country then and the second
one, a Beech 1900, joined us.
Very soon after that a UN Kingair
200 offered his assistance and
we set up a large square search.
It is a fairly long track between
the two cities and the ATC could
only give us a vague location of
where it had last transmitted.
I was pretty sure we'd find
a burning hole in the snowy
mountains because the jet had
got going before us and we'd
arrived at the same destination
before it. I just wondered how
l'd feel seeing a wrecked aircraft
knowing l'd just seen it whole.
Dave in the UN machine called
us on bingo fuel and he turned for
Islamabad. Fifteen or so minutes
later, the 1900 turned away having
reached its final fuel, followed
by us some time later. We all felt
sadly inadequate at not having been
able to help these downed fellow
aviators. To tell you the truth
though, even in the white snow, it
would not have been easy to spot
an accident. The snowy trees and
thick blanket would have masked a
lot of the impact and our only hope
really was to see some smoke.
Once we'd landed back in
Peshawar, we connected up with
the 1900 crew and rode together
back to the house. Not much was
said and the gravity of what we'd
just tried to do was palpable.
What we could not have
expected was what came next. The
Red Cross had requested our home
base in South Africa that we were
all to be fired, or at the very least,
replaced. The reason they gave was
that we had wasted fuel loitering
over the mountains. When we
explained what it was we had tried
to achieve, never mind the favour
given to the Afghan ATC, resulting
in preferential treatment later down
the line, it was completely lost
on these left-wing bureaucrats.
Our general manager back in
the office at Lanseria came to our
aid and contested that we'd acted
admirably, should he have gone
down, he was hopeful that we
were the ones who would come to
his side. It needs to be mentioned
that the Danish lads had nothing
adverse said to them by the UN.
Later that evening while we
were digesting the day's events
around the bar, someone yelled
at us to come and watch the TV.
Reports were coming in that a
hijacked Ariana Airlines 727
had made unscheduled stops at
Tashkent and then again at a further
airport, possibly Irkutsk, in the
old USSR bloc. It had turned up
at England's Stansted Airport to
be remotely parked and watched
very carefully by the authorities.
Images of the crew escaping
out of the windows using ropes
and reels were flashed around
the World on the mainline media
channels. This happened during
the dead of night and the inevitable
asylum was sought. We wondered
if the crew would be sent back
to Kabul, to face a certain firing
squad. The Taliban would not have
been too happy with them heading
across the borders like that.
We all felt really relieved that
there was no accident and death,
also we felt vindicated that a
nasty story, for the Ariana crew
and us, had all ended happily.
It was just the Red Cross who
were still red in the face, but
then, that was a common emotion
amongst the majority of them.
Happy to have helped!
Hijacking
Asylum
The National Transportation Safety Board
has released preliminary aviation accident
statistics showing U.S. civil aviation accidents
fell from 1,550 in 2011 to 1,539 in 2012.
For the third year in a row, there were no fatal
accidents involving scheduled Part 121 operations
(commercial air transport). In addition, there were
no fatal accidents involving scheduled Part 135
operations (commuter), the sixth year in a row that
this segment of aviation experienced no fatalities.
For the general aviation community, the
results were mixed. Although the number of
total accidents (1,471) and fatal accidents (271)
increased from the previous year, there were fewer
(432) fatalities and the accident rate per 100,000 flight
hours declined to 6.78.
Finally, on-demand Part 135 operations, which
include charter, air taxi, air tour, and air medical
flights, posted decreases across all measures. In 2012,
the number of total accidents, fatal accidents,
fatalities, and the accident rate per 100,000 flight
hours for these operations decreased from the
previous year.
The 2012 statistical tables showing accidents,
fatalities, and accident rates for major segments of
U.S. civil aviation are found at:
www.ntsb.gov/data/aviation_stats.html
2012, a fairly safe year for flying