Desert Plane Crash

Our marketing manager Stewart had taken a flight to Maun, visiting our newly opened depot in the town. We were at one of the numerous parties that were one of the joys of Gabs. Someone then said that the scheduled flight from Maun to Gabs that afternoon had disappeared. The plane was just a small twin engined Cessna with room for four passengers.

I made sure that Stewart’s wife was being looked after and then went to Gabs airport. The only car in the car park was Stewart’s.

I phoned the managing director of Air Botswana, who had the temerity to tell me that Air Botswana flights were not his responsibility but that I should contact Air Services Botswana with any queries I might have. My response was not printable. By this time it was getting on for 2 a.m., so at 6 a.m. I went to the control tower at the airport and asked what the situation was.

There I was told that the flight was indeed missing, but responsibility for searching for it fell to Jo’burg, and therefore not to them. I suggested that they should get hold of De Beers, who had a major operation in Botswana, and ask if their helicopter could be put on standby in case there were casualties. They said that was a good idea.

The plane was eventually found later that morning. The pilot had managed a ‘wheels up’ landing in the desert and we were informed there were no casualties. It took twenty four hours for a rescue party to arrive at the site by road. The daytime temperature at that time of year in the desert was at least 35 degrees Celsius. There was no food in the aircraft and one liter of water between the six people on board.

To add insult to injury, Air Botswana sent us an invoice for the flight, which was withdrawn after a very robust conversation.

After that Stewart always checked, in advance, if any fight he was due to fly on had adequate food and water on board.