Mission interrupted: technical problems force Agriculture Minister to land

The flight was operated by Flex Air Charters using a single engine Cessna aircraft with the registration number 5Y-BUC.

On board were Agriculture Minister, Betty Achan Ogwaro, her Director General, John Kual, a journalist and Harald Rojahn, the Programme Manager for the EU funded Sudan Productive Capacity Recovery Programme (SPCRP), implemented by GIZ in South Sudan.

The Agriculture Minister (in blue blouse) and her team ponder the next move after the failed trip (30.05.2012/Akim Mugisa).The team was destined for Aweil Rice Scheme in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, supported by the SPCRP, which comes to an end in September this year.

According to the minister the aircraft developed a fault in one of its wings as it started gaining altitude shortly after take off at around 8am.

Ogwaro says the team was traveling to Aweil following an invitation of the State Governor to discuss issues concerning management of the rice scheme and seeking ways of extending the EU funded project for another year.

A ministry pressman, Gabriel Lawrence Ayok, says that the pilot was trying to take the plane up but the aircraft carrying eleven people lacked balance.

The pilot tried for the second time which was more dangerous as we flew over Juba Na’Bari before bringing it down. We were told there was lack of balance on the left wing,” Ayok says.

One of the pilots working with the privately owned airline company, Khamis Pasqual, expressed surprise saying he had successfully flown the aircraft from Bentiu in Unity state to Juba the previous day.

A Feeder Airline aircraft after crash-landing in Wau (March 2012/Akim Mugisa).However, Pasqual acknowledges that there could have been an error” on one of the wings.

The Operations Manager of Flex Air Charters who only identified himself as Steven noted that the problem had nothing to do with the engine but a failure by one of the wings after take off.

Talk to the pilot who was in command. I cannot give you more than that,” Steven said yesterday.

The pilot could not be reached, as the company was not willing to reveal the identity of the captain.

The incident comes hardly a month after a World Food Programme (WFP) plane carrying the former Western Equatoria Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, Charles Yoere and eight others, crash-landed at Yambio airstrip.

In March, about 40 people aboard a commercial airline belonging to Feeder Airlines escaped with minor injuries after crash-landing at Wau airport in Western Bahr el-Ghazal State.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Transport is skeptical about airworthiness of some aircrafts operating in the country where they enjoy lucrative business deals in scheduled and chartered domestic and regional flights.

Mayom Kuoc Malek, deputy minister for transport in South Sudan (Akim Mugisa).Speaking at the launch of Safari Air Limited in March the Deputy Minister of Transport, Mayom Kuoc Malek, said that some of the many aircrafts operating in the new country were not airworthy.

Among post-independence achievements in the sector, the minister affirmed that South Sudan was in October admitted into the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

He disclosed that the new country had also enacted its own Aviation Authority Laws to which all air transport companies will be subjected.

The incidents underscore the challenges and risks of transportation in a difficult environment, where infrastructure is limited.