Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Mystery of missing pilot and chopper continues...

A week after a KWS pilot and his chopper were reported missing, neither has been traced, even after Safaricom confirmed having tracked his cell phone signals to some forest around the Mt. Kenya area. This raises the very likely possibility that the team on the rescue operation is either ill equipped or grossly inept for the mission. The unfolding hopelessness depicted in the updates from KWS spokesman darkens the cloud of mystery surrounding the whole episode.

Q. Why was the chopper being flown by a KWS pilot and not one from the owners KPLC?

Q. The sole passenger aboard, Minister Kuti, who was dropped in Isiolo has not been reported to have said a word since the incident. Is he in shock or just busy with his campaign schedule? Is no one in a hurry to ask him shed some light on any anomalies he may have noted with the chopper or the pilot on the flight?

Q. Was the pilot in communication with any ground control during the flight to and from Isiolo?

Q. Was the chopper fitted with locator equipment, which by now must surely be a mandatory industry standard? Or is this one of those shady contraptions purchased over the years by parastatals for ambiguous projects?

Do any of our armed forces have a professional rescue mission unit? The motley crews of rescuers seen on TV footage as they embarked on the mountain reconnoiter, armed with machine guns did not exude confidence and I do not want to imagine them in a combat situation. I also hope the missing Major has had some survival training to see him through the ordeal. When he comes out of the forest, he might want to find out who has ‘poured money to finish him’. Not long ago, while surveying the aberdares forest, he dropped from the skies with several CEO’s on board his chopper. Fortunately no one was injured.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My prayer is that the major be found alive, and am sure this is your prayer too.

But I don't like the plastic way you seem to treat the whole thing.

This is not a hollywood thing. Its real life! So when you say the major is trained and should come out of the ordeal, you should first know that some things like accidents don't know training. It's an issue of God sparing him.

How many 'trained' people have died/been injured in accidents?

If Mohammed Kuti was to say anything, I wonder what it would be. He was dropped and the major left. What else is there to say?

On any 'anomalies', that would feature in an inquiry as to the cause of accident, not in the rescue mission.

Your theory of being ill equiped is rather out of perception than facts. The signal has been picked, yes. Do you mean nothing is being done?

Definitely someone is following the signal. So many factors in the Mt could be hindering the process of exactly locating the major.

Already you seem to be blaming the rescuers of inefficiency, and yet this is purely an unpredictable situation.

There are so many reasons why guns would be carried. Mt Kenya is full of wild animals that would easily turn rescuers into victims.

I simply don't like the cold water you seem to pour on our forces either.

Kenyan rescuers, led by the army have carried out such missions before, especially in Mt Kenya, successfully.

Please understand that the terrain there is very rough and its raining.

Again let it not look like the people concerned are not doing enough to find the major. Efforts are being done!

Anonymous said...

It is a good thing that the Pilot was found alive and rescued in good time.

But some glaring questions still remain. The deafening silence from Mohammed Kuti for instance. Not like he was expected to give details since he wasn't there during the time of the accident but at least say something? A word of sympathy? And by the way has he yet gone to see the good Pilot in Hospital? Does anyone know? If he hasn't, that would look really bad. But maybe he did go and I missed the footage, I don't know.

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