Boma West, in the middle of nowhere towards the Ethiopian border. I was happy to fly there, for the mountains that announce the Ethiopian landscapes. I had to fly a few soldiers, their weapons and their precious cargo. Beer. Only dozens of boxes of beer. I know the troop morale has to be kept high but…most seats had been removed for the booze.
The landing was fine, the beer offload through the large cargo door too. All the other doors were closed. The crowd, as many civilians as soldiers, seemed to behave, keeping some distance.
I had hardly jumped out of the airplane that the crowd started to rush like in panic. I got nearly crushed against the fuselage. People, mostly soldiers with AK 47 slung around their shoulders, were scrambling like on a military exercise to climb on board through that cargo door. The lower edge stands at one meter high. So the guys were really climbing using legs and hands, pushing each other, screaming, elbowing here and there. I saw one soldier using his boot to crush one competing hand against the metal. This is where I started to hate the word soldiers to describe those clowns.They have no discipline no idea of what it takes to be a soldier. But 'armed men in uniform' is a bit too long...
I managed to slip away, nothing I could do there. I was watching from a distance the plane getting full like an egg. When it was finally full, with 2 guys hanging outside, no way to even close the doors except by calling the Tokyo metro guys, a calm soldier, finally one, came and asked me quite naturally “so we’re good, you can go?”!!
I burst out laughing, I just couldn’t believe it and his feelings looked shattered. How many people in there? 50? The weight, the aircraft balance, each soldier with his loaded gun in…I could see a few reasons not to go.
It took a bit of explaining, surrounded by an angry crowd (the ones who didn’t manage to board I suppose), I got a punch in the neck(!), not sure why or who as when I turned around to retaliate, there was nobody close. But we agreed on the impossibility to take off as it was, we succeeded in removing most of them, only the strongest stayed in..and a woman! A tough breed that one amongst these savages!! It looked she had a swollen eye.
I had climbed myself on board to “help” these unruly and unconvinced passengers to get out. A bit of gym was good. F… I had barely managed to kick one out that another guy tried to jump on board, without thinking my fist went off, hitting him in the chest. Out of breath he fell back rolling in the dust.
Meanwhile other soldiers came with long sticks and started to whack indiscriminately in the pushing crowd, that move made room to throw people out. Luckily I got help. Funny how the soldiers were divided on this issue. The Good and the Bad. The Ugly must have been somewhere else.
I knew I had to accept some defeat at some point. 15 strong soldiers were going to be really hard to dislodge, I decided 2 wounded soldiers and that brave woman could stay on board. Only 3 seats, the floor for most. And the Kalashnikovs, that hadn’t been used finally. In the chaos I had forgot about them.
Trying to close that cargo door, I had to slam hard 2 hands with that very heavy door: 2 more guys trying to jump in while being whacked by the long sticks. Then I climbed on my seat, one guy held the ladder, another one tried again to sneak in behind me. More finger slapping with the pilot door while my foot kicked one’s face while I was starting the engine.
Man, that was some adrenaline flushing down the pipes. I was drenched. Though except that punch, I was never aimed at. Fun but not reasonable. We need some plan for next time. Cargo drop? Body guards? Land and stop on the other side of the strip, keep the engine running on feather, offload quickly and take off right away before the crazy crowd runs down?
The best part? Boma West has been a peaceful area for months now! There was no apparent reason to replay the 1975 US embassy situation in Saigon…(in one picture, there is indeed one guy punching somebody out in the freaked crowd trying to board a chopper)
