Aero Flight makes emergency landing in Sokoto

[FD2]

According to a passenger they got about halfway to Abuja but turned around and headed back with undercarriage problems. After landing 'the pilot' told the passengers they would have to have to make alternative arrangements and left empty to ferry the aircraft to Abuja with the 'minor fault'. The aircraft in the photo looks suspiciously like it's in Schreiner colours, which operated years ago as Aero Contractors Nigeria, both rotary and fixed wing in the south of the country. I had two months with them in Lagos and Port Harcourt and went home vowing to stack supermarket shelves before returning. It wasn't the ACN people - they were a good bunch.

https://nationalaccordnewspaper.com/aer ... s-airport/

In the early 1980s, one ingenious crew solved their over-booked flight problem by getting the passengers to race around the aircraft a few times. Needless to say the old, infirm and obese ended last and were promptly bumped.

[Cacophonix]

According to a passenger they got about halfway to Abuja but turned around and headed back with undercarriage problems. After landing 'the pilot' told the passengers they would have to have to make alternative arrangements and left empty to ferry the aircraft to Abuja with the 'minor fault'. The aircraft in the photo looks suspiciously like it's in Schreiner colours, which operated years ago as Aero Contractors Nigeria, both rotary and fixed wing in the south of the country. I had two months with them in Lagos and Port Harcourt and went home vowing to stack supermarket shelves before returning. It wasn't the ACN people - they were a good bunch.

https://nationalaccordnewspaper.com/aer ... s-airport/

In the early 1980s, one ingenious crew solved their over-booked flight problem by getting the passengers to race around the aircraft a few times. Needless to say the old, infirm and obese ended last and were promptly bumped.

Just as long as the racing around was done outside the aircraft while on the ground unlike, as was claimed to be the case, in this unfortunate accident, although it is likely that it was fuel starvation that precipitated the accident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Band ... -410_crash

The aircraft was operating a passenger flight from N'Dolo Airport, Kinshasa to Bandundu Airport, Bandundu, Mai-Ndombe District. At 13:00 local time (12:00 UTC), the aircraft crashed into a house approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) short of the runway at Bandundu. According to most sources, no one was injured on the ground. Of twenty-one people aboard the plane, one survived the crash. Local Radio Okapi reported that the aircraft ran out of fuel after being unable to land at Bandundu, but Filair later declared that 150 litres of kerosene were still on board, affirming that a technical problem had caused the crash. Daniel Philemotte, the Belgian airline owner, was at the controls of the aircraft himself. Most of the dead were Congolese. Soldiers of MONUC were the first to reach the crash site and reported that no explosion appeared to have occurred, supporting the original hypothesis of fuel .

The lone survivor of the crash claimed that a crocodile hidden in a duffel bag had escaped. The frightened passengers then moved towards the front of the aircraft away from the crocodile. This affected the aircraft weight and balance leading to a loss of control. The crocodile escaped as the plane approached its destination. The crocodile reportedly survived the crash but was killed by a blow from a machete.

The co-pilot who was British perished in the accident.

Stranger things have happened in Africa. My mother told me of an incident on flight she was working on in Africa where a group of Arab gentlemen attempted to light a fire for their tea on the floor near the galley.

I remember flying into Ostend some years ago and noticing at least 4 African registered aircraft that had been seized on the basis of not being airworthy by the Belgian authorities.

Caco

[CharlieOneSix]

FD2 - never realised you had tried Nigeria! I would have resigned if Bristow had tried to send me there.

Re pax lighting fires on the aircraft floor, back in the days of yore the no.2 ex Mrs C16 was cabin crew on her one and only Hadj flight. Some pax lit up a primus stove for a brew! Wasn’t there a Hadj flight which crashed on landing at Mecca and the cabin crew couldn’t get any sense of urgency into the pax who, unused to flying, thought the ‘landing’ was normal.

[FD2]

Yes - I was 'resting' between jobs and took a chance on it. The company took me on to fly a machine which they already had several pilots qualified to fly so after arrival and the usual rigmarole of bribing our way through Lagos (there was a 'necklace' killing in front of the Hilton at the time) I eventually made my way to Port Harcourt where it was decided that I would get the Alouette 2 on my licence. After my 5 hour famil and VBC (no helicopter IFR in Nigeria anyway) I went to the CAA in Lagos, where the senior licensing man made out a Nigerian ATPL (H) for me and said I should now go along to the Technical Department to arrange for the tech exam. Two indolent men were sitting in there with their feet on their desks and they eventually informed me in a very ill mannered fashion that the department was closed for Christmas.
I asked if I could book the first available exam in the new year - "no"! I would have to come back again and book it when they were 'officially' open - in three weeks time! I went home for Christmas as I couldn't be employed and never went back. There were gunfights in the residential area, armed holdups, an old woman knocked over and killed in the road (body left to decompose for a week before a JCB burial at the side of the road), power off more than on and no phone contact with home, etc etc. When I was home there was yet another coup which finally sealed my decision.

[Cacophonix]

Yes - I was 'resting' between jobs and took a chance on it. The company took me on to fly a machine which they already had several pilots qualified to fly so after arrival and the usual rigmarole of bribing our way through Lagos (there was a 'necklace' killing in front of the Hilton at the time) I eventually made my way to Port Harcourt where it was decided that I would get the Alouette 2 on my licence. After my 5 hour famil and VBC (no helicopter IFR in Nigeria anyway) I went to the CAA in Lagos, where the senior licensing man made out a Nigerian ATPL (H) for me and said I should now go along to the Technical Department to arrange for the tech exam. Two indolent men were sitting in there with their feet on their desks and they eventually informed me in a very ill mannered fashion that the department was closed for Christmas.
I asked if I could book the first available exam in the new year - "no"! I would have to come back again and book it when they were 'officially' open - in three weeks time! I went home for Christmas as I couldn't be employed and never went back. There were gunfights in the residential area, armed holdups, an old woman knocked over and killed in the road (body left to decompose for a week before a JCB burial at the side of the road), power off more than on and no phone contact with home, etc etc. When I was home there was yet another coup which finally sealed my decision.

Welcome to a very bad part of Africa. Nigeria is truly a disgrace and a prime example of what should be a very wealthy state that has been despoiled by greed, graft, incompetence and religious and nationalistic intolerance. The following image, not taken by me, sums the place up.

5388616_img20170526174025_jpeg76206c228623c3f7f0d54512a3b2302c.jpg (78.79 KiB) Viewed 173 times

It is a pity that chuks, who used to post here, and who spent years flying out of Port Harcourt isn't here to give us the benefit of his many experiences, good and bad in that place. I remember reading in one of his excellent anecdotes that he grew to miss the place. Africa is like an insidious madness or malaria. Once bitten you can't get it out of your blood or your mind.

Anyway, many years ago, this liberal minded fool thought we might do business in Nigeria. Lagos was bad but Port Harcourt was truly appalling what the Bonny River bearing is foetid, polluted and grisly cargo out to sea as well, past the many ex-pats who seemed impervious to the horror of the place.

My business signed a contract with a government agency but we pulled out after a year having been paid for about a third of what we were owed. It wasn't worth the effort, risk and aggravation of chasing the remainder of the lucre up. We took the hit, swore we would never do business anywhere in Africa again, apart from, maybe, South Africa and then two years ago we forgot this good policy and were tempted to do engage in Kenya. You won't be surprised to hear that I was checking this particular paragraph in a lawyer's letter to one of the parties in Kenya just yesterday...

Legal letter.JPG (67.05 KiB) Viewed 177 times

Will we/I never learn.

Caco

[FD2]

I had a couple of visits to Mombasa - the first in 1966 and the other in 1975. With the usual reservations about walking around alone at night it was still reasonably safe. The sleeper up to Nairobi for the weekend in 1966 was a real treat and one small thing still sticks in my mind - the quality of the coffee on that train, which converted me from tea! Plus the game park and the Saturday night party of course. It seemed a reasonably happy and well run place then but from what I read these days it has become yet another basket case.

[Capetonian]

I went to Kenya regularly as it was roughly half way between where I lived, CPT, and where a g/f of mine lived in Italy, we both got free flights as we both worked for airlines. In those days most flights between ZA and EU routed via NBO so we had plenty of options, I usually flew on Alshitalia or Olympic, the flights between JNB and NBO were usually almost empty. Even NBO was fairly safe and civilised on those days, we usually stayed at the New Stanley or the 680 and got good aircrew rates. We sometimes went down to the coast by train, which was a joy, clean and well run by educated and civilised non-reflectives.

I did have some anxious moments at immigration at NBO as my passport was full of ZA and Rhodesian stamps but I was only once refused entry, however as I turned round to walk back into the transit area, a few 10 dollar notes fell out of my hand and I was called back and given an entry stamp as the dollars disappeared into someone's trousers.

I haven't been back for a years and whilst I don't suppose it's as bad as Nigeria (I doubt if anywhere is), I fear it has reverted to savagery, as is the way of Africa.