Benedict Allen made the news in the UK at least. The intrepid British explorer, whom I admit I’d not heard of before, goes missing in the Highlands of PNG. Eventually he’s located at an airstrip north of the Porgera gold mine. I flew past it on Thursday afternoon and, if I’d known he was there, could easily have picked him up. If I’d done that then I’d have deprived the Daily Mail of its sensationalist publicity when they arranged for a helicopter to fly out from Mount Hagen on Friday. I would not have lost any sleep whatsoever if I’d done that. Unfortunately I knew nothing about the man until after I returned.
It’s dangerous to judge when I don’t know the whole story, but my initial reaction has been, “What an idiot!” What sort of person in their right mind (presumably) disappears into the sort of terrain he was exploring without a satellite phone, GPS and an emergency locator beacon. Not to do so is negligent, plain stupid and has the potential to put other people’s lives at risk when they start searching.
Or was it just a carefully orchestrated publicity scam? The cynic in me doesn’t rule out that possibility.
One thing was accurate, there is a tribal war going on in the area between the Hewa and Paiela tribes. The latter have a reputation for being violent bullies. The Paiela airstrip has been closed since the late 1990s, I’m the only MAF pilot in PNG to have ever landed there, and none of us enjoyed the experience for two reasons: firstly it was high altitude, short and flat and difficult; secondly, because the people were generally so unpleasant and difficult to deal with.
I’m sure that Mr Allen will make a substantial income from his tale as to how he heroically survived, not just the trek, but also his brush with the savages of the Highlands. I’m absolutely certain that the Daily Mail’s interest will be confined to how much it can make out of the story.
My assessment remains the same: “What an idiot!”
The place he was rescued from is where some New Tribes missionaries chose to leave some years ago because the community was so dysfunctional and violent. It’s where sorcery and witch hunts occurred that led to the murder of many women that I commented on before.
A few months ago in a Weekly News I recommended Jonathan Kopf’s book, “Canopy of Darkness”, I continue to recommend it and if you do read it, you’ll understand a bit more of what our intrepid explorer blundered into.
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On Thursday I flew to a very remote community where the Sepik lowlands begin to climb up through the foothills of the Central Ranges.
The airstrip is generally serviced from Wewak, in the past by the GA8 Airvan. Since the airstrip is a difficult one, since we’ve had the C208 Caravan based in Wewak it hasn’t been possible for the bigger aircraft to land there until the pilot gained sufficient experience.
“Please get the aircraft to come back,” was a plea from the villagers when I landed. Six people have died and the health centre and school closed directly because MAF hasn’t been going there. Six people who couldn’t get to hospital, and the heath workers and teachers unable and unwilling to remain in a place that remote without air support.
Why weren’t we told? Why didn’t a message get through to us? If I’d known and if MAF as an organisation had known, then we could have done something about it. But we didn’t, and six people died. Maybe they’d have died anyway, but I don’t know that, and I feel frustrated and sad that people whom we might have been able to help, weren’t helped.
I will be working to get the aircraft back there as soon as possible.
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On the home front, I shared my cold with Nicki, so as I recovered, she got worse. Today I’m nearly 100% again, just a slight chesty tickle, and Nicki is well on the mend from our first colds in many months. Hopefully it will have boosted our anti-cold immune system so that we don’t get another for a long while.
Organising air tickets for next March is now in hand, and by next week may well be confirmed. It moves everything nearer.
It’s dangerous to judge when I don’t know the whole story, but my initial reaction has been, “What an idiot!” What sort of person in their right mind (presumably) disappears into the sort of terrain he was exploring without a satellite phone, GPS and an emergency locator beacon. Not to do so is negligent, plain stupid and has the potential to put other people’s lives at risk when they start searching.
Or was it just a carefully orchestrated publicity scam? The cynic in me doesn’t rule out that possibility.
One thing was accurate, there is a tribal war going on in the area between the Hewa and Paiela tribes. The latter have a reputation for being violent bullies. The Paiela airstrip has been closed since the late 1990s, I’m the only MAF pilot in PNG to have ever landed there, and none of us enjoyed the experience for two reasons: firstly it was high altitude, short and flat and difficult; secondly, because the people were generally so unpleasant and difficult to deal with.
I’m sure that Mr Allen will make a substantial income from his tale as to how he heroically survived, not just the trek, but also his brush with the savages of the Highlands. I’m absolutely certain that the Daily Mail’s interest will be confined to how much it can make out of the story.
My assessment remains the same: “What an idiot!”
The place he was rescued from is where some New Tribes missionaries chose to leave some years ago because the community was so dysfunctional and violent. It’s where sorcery and witch hunts occurred that led to the murder of many women that I commented on before.
A few months ago in a Weekly News I recommended Jonathan Kopf’s book, “Canopy of Darkness”, I continue to recommend it and if you do read it, you’ll understand a bit more of what our intrepid explorer blundered into.
**********
On Thursday I flew to a very remote community where the Sepik lowlands begin to climb up through the foothills of the Central Ranges.
The airstrip is generally serviced from Wewak, in the past by the GA8 Airvan. Since the airstrip is a difficult one, since we’ve had the C208 Caravan based in Wewak it hasn’t been possible for the bigger aircraft to land there until the pilot gained sufficient experience.
“Please get the aircraft to come back,” was a plea from the villagers when I landed. Six people have died and the health centre and school closed directly because MAF hasn’t been going there. Six people who couldn’t get to hospital, and the heath workers and teachers unable and unwilling to remain in a place that remote without air support.
Why weren’t we told? Why didn’t a message get through to us? If I’d known and if MAF as an organisation had known, then we could have done something about it. But we didn’t, and six people died. Maybe they’d have died anyway, but I don’t know that, and I feel frustrated and sad that people whom we might have been able to help, weren’t helped.
I will be working to get the aircraft back there as soon as possible.
**********
On the home front, I shared my cold with Nicki, so as I recovered, she got worse. Today I’m nearly 100% again, just a slight chesty tickle, and Nicki is well on the mend from our first colds in many months. Hopefully it will have boosted our anti-cold immune system so that we don’t get another for a long while.
Organising air tickets for next March is now in hand, and by next week may well be confirmed. It moves everything nearer.
