By Ndawula Ronald
I sat my UCE in 1988 at the only Ndejjee SSS in the world.
During the examination time, over 30 years ago, I can vividly remember my marks on the ‘O’LEVEL passlip as if it were yesterday and I recall the infamous and tragic incident that happened on Oct 17th 1988 when Uganda Airlines flight 775 enroute London crashed trying to land at Italian Fiumicino airport.
Of the 52 passengers on board, 33 died and 19 survived and among the dead was my maternal uncle Rev. Adonia Kirinda who was a very handsome, soft spoken evangelist based in USA and then had started working with Life ministry Uganda after the war.
The main cause of the crash, according to the report, “was largely pilot error”. The team of experts averred that, “the Ugandan crew lacked adequate preparation in the procedure for a non-procedure approach on runway 34L at Fiumicino Airport”.
Alot of finger pointing played out in the news from incompetence of the flight crew to poor servicing of the plane which had earlier been suspended from London for noise related concerns.
This was the beginning of the closing shop of the national carrier as travelling on the airline seemed risky.
The revelations by the COSASE committee of the the alleged incompetence, unqualified managers, extravagant carrier making the country lose 160 billion a year in addition to risking peoples lives and phony purchases of planes is the saddest story todate!
Now that the CEO of the most prestigious Ugandan business is a school drop out till she presents her documents then I can imagine whether the engineers are not welders from Ntungamo or the mechanics are not from “kisseka market” of Mbarara city and the spare parts suppliers are not metal fabricators in Kabwohe.
I will be hard pressed to believe that fueling those very aircrafts which have cost Ugandans so much money is not done using diesel instead of jet fuel.
Watching a documentary on TV of a rescue operation of a plane crash in Chile the investigators reached a conclusion that the engineers on servicing a plane, replaced 2 original screws with duplicates from a Taiwan car parts manufacturer which could not withstand the strength required by an airline.
This led to the demise of 130 passengers!
Now that the CEO Bamuturaki is what she is , how about the Engineers, servicing experts and The mechanics ?
I remember when a Doctor recommended surgery of patient because the X-ray images were observing a cockroach in the lungs!
The patient being capable, decided to fly to better hospitals outside the country for better management.
On going through the pre surgery procedure the Xray was run again and the results were ,
The cockroach was in the Ugandan Xrays not in the lung of the patient!
Had the patient lacked capacity to go finance his medical trip , he would have been cut , to remove a non existing cockroach!
God forbid, one day the Uganda airlines will stop midair and come down reeling because someone from the street in Rushere or Mbarara, was given a lucrative job, because he knows how to work on milk coolers, to manage fueling of the planes.
The right thing now, if those in charge are interested in sharing 160 billion every year, just requisition through the people who gave you jobs without due diligence on your potential, and take the the money without risking people’s lives.
As long as you spend your loot in Uganda, you will be okay and infact nobody will touch you.
Like Pinneti, Musenero and others before you nobody will touch you and mind you those who appoint you are the supreme judges in UGANDA.
The death of Rev. Kirinda changed our maternal family for the worst and forever.
The mistake of one incompetent person that day of October 17th 1988 should not be repeated for the same happened under the stewardship of NRM.
Ndawula Ronald the author is the former chairperson of Luwero district
1 comment
The Uganda Airlines CEO may be deficient for whoever’s standards but not the pilots and other airlines technical personnel. You also get it so wrong when you make allegations that the ill fated Uganda airlines flight crew in the Rome mishap were incompetent! To err is human and anyway it is always easy to blame the deceased because dead men tell no tales. Uganda Airlines has very competent professional pilots, cabin crew and technical teams because the strict international aviation regulations cannot allow cutting corners. They fly to Dubai, Nairobi, Johannesberg and recently got clearance for London Heathrow and Beijing. This clearance involves stringent competency audits which they met.