Businessmen panic as BDF plane crash land

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Tuesday January 17, 2012 00:00

 

The group was returning from Xaixai in the North West District following a handing over ceremony of 25 houses built for less privileged citizens of the settlement. The entrepreneurs were invited to the handing over because they had responded to President Ian Khama's Housing Appeal. But as the philanthropists clutched their stomachs inside the BDF plane, President Khama's official helicopter landed smoothly.

A Mmegi team that accompanied the delegation said it was an unpleasant flight all the way and back because of the condition of the aircraft. 'It started when we left Gaborone for Xaixai,' says photojournalist, Kebofhe Mathe.'The plane was noisy and scary. Even the way we landed at Xaixai worried President Khama as he expressed his concern at the speed at which we landed several times.

'He even drove along the airfield to inspect it. I was sitting next to one businessman who did not enjoy the journey at all. A moment after landing, we heard a loud noise that caused the fuselage to shake before the plane came to an abrupt stop. This was immediately followed by the smell of burning tyre.'

Mathe says inspite of their panic, the passengers were ordered not to leave the plane, and they waited for more than 20 minutes. The Mmegi photographer says his journalistic instinct took the better of him and he sneaked out to take pictures.

Nonetheless, Presidential spokesperson Maleta Mogwe - who was on the troubled flight - has downplayed the incident and characterised it as nothing to write home about. Mogwe says she suspects that after its rough landing at Xaixai earlier, the plane's condition had worsened by the time it returned to SSKIA.

She commended the pilots for 'a good job' of controlling the plane after it experienced problems on the runway.'The BDF has good pilots and they did a fantastic job,' Mogwe says. 'The aircraft was towed from the runway to the hanger where it was fixed.'  As for herself, she was not scared a bit because she has experienced worse incidents on trips abroad than what happened on Sunday, she says. The same goes for Farouk Chopdat of the Choppies supermarket chain who says the 'minor' incident was a sign that God has no plans to call him home yet. 'I wasn't scared at all,' Chopdat says. 'When it is your time to go, it just happens; and when it is not the time, it doesn't happen.'

The director of Broadhurst Motors, Mohamed Dada, says the passengers were very lucky that the incident happened on the runway when the plane was already stopping, otherwise it could have been a disaster. 'We were lucky,' the motor dealership tycoon says.

'The pilot was very careful and managed to stop the plane. We got off and called the fire brigade.' Other passengers were Rafik Sardar of Trade World, Salim Sheik of Builders World and Willy Kathurima of Kathurima and Associates. 

Meanwhile, BDF spokesman Colonel Paul Sharp has not returned from Christmas holidays and could not be reached for comment because his mobile phone was off air. Unconfirmed information reaching Mmegi is that upon landing at SSKIA, the nose cap of the plane was damaged further, causing the wheel to come into contact with the underbelly.