Garang’s death – Uganda under fire for failing to follow aviation guidelines

NAIROBI, Aug 3, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — According to the Kenyan KTN TV, the Ugandan government is under fire for allegedly failing to follow basic aviation guidelines when it allowed the late Dr John Garang to fly out of Entebbe.

Sudanese First Vice President John Garang boards a helicopter at Entebbe International Airport on his way to meet Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni at his country home in Mbarara, western Uganda, July 29, 2005. (Reuters).

The Museveni government is being accused of giving Garang’s flight the green light to proceed to Sudan at night against aviation rules that bar any helicopter of the category Garang travelled in to fly beyond 5.00 p.m.

Justine Dralaze, a Ugandan journalist based in Kampala, said to the Kenyan TV that the criticisms are emanating from one procedural failure and some failure to abide by aviation ground rules.

One, the critics are saying the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) defied the rule that bars the helicopters of that category from flying out of the airport beyond 5.00 p.m. That Garang’s helicopter is not supposed to fly at night, but CAA let it go. So that is one of the criticisms.

And then another one is civil aviation – the rule here is that if a VIP of Garang’s calibre is supposed to leave the international airport, Entebbe International Airport, the CAA is supposed to carry out a weather study three hours before the flight starts, and this was not done.

And then the third one is this aircraft was serviced recently and this is the longest flight it made and the critics are saying that this aircraft should not have gone on a long distance flight because it has just come out of service and it needed to be tested for quite some time before it take such a long journey.

Ugandan government has – earlier on government was denying critics, dismissing critics that this aircraft is not airworthy and what not. They said the aircraft has been fitted with all precautionary, all safety devices to prevent any eventualities, and the minister of transport is dismissing the claims of not having this aircraft fly at night. They said they recently fit it with complicated equipment to detect bad weather and all that. Apparently there on the defensive side.

According to the Ugandan journalist, the M1-172 – that kind of aircraft that carried Garang, is actually a utility aircraft. This is an aircraft meant to carry supplies not human, not passengers. But, when that aircraft was bought by government of Uganda, it was taken for re-overhauling and then it was re-modified and fitted with – customized to carry passengers, but it’s not originally meant to be a VIP aircraft.

Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service.