Spending a pound to raise cents, does it make sense?
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From: Omar Kezimbira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Subject: ugnet_: Piloting: Mutebile plane strays to DRC-New Vision-3/12/2002
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 17:00:21 -0800 (PST)
Mutebile plane strays to DRC
By Geoffrey Kamali
A CHARTERED plane carrying Bank of Uganda Governor Tumusiime Mutebile to Kisoro, was on Saturday forced to fly back to Entebbe Airport after it lost direction and ended up in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 19-seater Zambian registered LET aircraft, 9-JEAZ, had been scheduled to fly to Kisoro where Mutebile was to preside over a fundraising drive for Muramba Secondary School.
Others on board were Solicitor General Peter Kabatsi, lawyers Peter Nkurunziza and Deus Byamugisha, among others.
The group missed the function.
The plane, leased from an unidentified Zambian aviation firm by Eagle Air, a local aviation company, had been chartered by the gender and culture minister, Sam Bitangaro, to fly the group to Kisoro and back at a cost of US$2,500.
Eagle Air�s marketing manager, Patrick Twikirize, said yesterday the mistake was caused by the Zambian pilots who recorded the wrong code-nets (indicating latitude and longitudinal directions) shortly before take-off.
He said they had refunded the money and the pilots had been relieved of their duties.
�They (pilots) entered the wrong code-nets. They have never been to Kisoro but they entered the right latitude but wrong longitude, showing north-west instead of south-west,� he explained.
Sources told The New Vision yesterday that passengers became anxious after the usual one-hour flight appeared to be longer.
Peering through the windows of the aircraft, they noticed the terrain was an unfamiliar large mass of forest, prompting them to ask the pilots to reaffirm with the control tower back at Entebbe.
�When I heard the plane was returning, I couldn�t believe it. They had gone in the opposite direction,� Twikirize said.
The two pilots, Mbewe and Vivian, declined to say anything yesterday when The New Vision telephoned them for a comment.
�They say they don�t want to speak to you because they don�t know you,� they said through another pilot, George Mawundu.
The two are said to be seasoned pilots and Capt. Mbewe is said to have been former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda�s pilot.
Eagle Air�s managing director Capt. Tony Rubombora said the deal would be re-negotiated to allow his company fly with its own pilots, conversant with the flight zones.
Published on: Tuesday, 3rd December, 2002
