Why visit ACE ’25?
Back in August we presented a feature on unusual operations. Business Air News asked its readers about the most unusual things they had done in, or with, an aircraft, and from the raft of stories that came in we saw a theme emerging with African anecdotes. We have put together a short compilation here that covers elephants, babies and marauding motorbikes – enjoy…
Humanitarian operator Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) came to the aid of a pair of conjoined twins who, against all odds, had been born naturally in the remote village of Muzombo in the western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They needed surgery to separate them.
The family endured a 15-hour, 155-mile journey on motorbike across gruelling terrain from their home to reach Vanga hospital where the separation surgery should have taken place. But it lacked equipment and expertise, so a team of volunteer surgeons agreed to perform the operation in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, instead.
Concerned that the fragile newborns may not survive another long and difficult road journey, staff contacted MAF, which agreed to provide an emergency flight for the family in its Cessna 206. On landing at Vanga airfield to pick them up, the crew saw crowds of locals surging around a doctor who was attempting to lead the family towards the aircraft. Hundreds were lined up to wave farewell as the group took off for the 90-minute journey to Kinshasa.
When they arrived in the capital a medic collected the patients from the aircraft and rushed them off for successful separation surgery at the clinic.
Almost one month later MAF flew the family flew back to Vanga in its Pilatus PC-12 from where they were able to return to their village. Pilot Brett Reierson says: “The natural delivery of conjoined twins would be rare enough in a western hospital. But for a mum and her babies to survive this type of birth in such a remote setting, followed by a long and difficult journey across the jungle to be separated, is unbelievable. It was a privilege to be part of their story.”
Lanseria International-based Awesome Air Evac (AAE) was recently tasked with evacuating a patient who had a suspected broken pelvis from a bush camp in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. There were no medical facilities or resources to assist, so AAE dispatched an emergency medical doctor and intensive care nursing sister to stabilise and evacuate the patient to Johannesburg for medical care. They flew a Learjet 35 from Lanseria to Mfuwe airport, 237 nm to the north east of Lusaka International airport. The aircraft is ideal for these sorts of missions as its high altitude capability aides patient comfort and it offers high speed performance and quick turnaround times. From Mfuwe they had to convert the bush lodge’s airport shuttle bus into an ambulance using a stretcher from the aircraft.
On arrival at the patient’s cottage the medical team had to dodge an elephant that was eating leaves off the roof of a neighbouring cottage. And while preparing to load the patient into the ‘ambulance’, the doctor turned around to find a vervet monkey sitting inside it on the stretcher, which he notes would have made for a very interesting conversation with Port Health officials upon landing at Lanseria.
The pilots were then warned about an unusual roadblock that caused a 20-minute delay in the return to the airport. Another huge male elephant was standing across the only road out of the bush lodge. Since medical teams are dispatched with a full set of intensive care medications the patient was able to be lightly sedated while the medical staff waited for the African giant to amble out of the way.
Algerian Etablissement National de la Navigation Aerienne (ENNA) air traffic controller and aircraft accident investigator Feth el Nour Gacem has seen more than one odd event during his time in the air. He recalls the runway incursion of Sadiq III International airport in Sokoto, Nigeria in August, when the wire fencing surrounding the airport was breached by political demonstrators, many on motorbikes, just as a jet carrying a former state governor was coming in to land. As the protesters swarmed over the runway towards the taxiing aircraft the crew were advised by ATC to hold runway centre line to the end of the apron.
Security and perimeter fences are a particular weakness across Africa, and it’s not just bikers that manage to get through them. Pilots coming in to land have been faced with packs of camels, dogs and even wild boar on the landing strip, and once a worker was still painting a line down the middle.
It’s not just runway incursions that make travel on this continent interesting. “When you travel to some parts of Africa you sometimes have to bring cash to pay the landing fees in case there is no electronic payment terminal, and if you’re flying a
heavy plane you’ll have to carry a big bag,” he says. “And deep in the deserts of Africa you can be grounded for hours, days even, waiting for a fuel truck to appear.”
But the biggest challenge, he continues, is to fly during the African monsoon, which occurs around the Sahel region of Burkina Faso and over those countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea. Here the rainy season extends from June to September and the winds move from east to west, watering the entire region and occasionally upgrading to cyclones. “Not nice to be caught in one of those.”