The Flight from Hell

The Piaggio comes back two days later to pick us up to fly back to Wewak. This time I sit next to the pilot and Phil is at the back. We take off and about a half hour into the flight, there is a solid black cloud wall directly ahead of us. The pilot is on his radio talking to Wewak and starts banking out to the sea, trying to get around this black wall. We fly parallel to the wall for some time out over the ocean but can’t see an end to this wall. The pilot is constantly talking to Wewak. He turns to me and says, it’s no use, the storm is right into Wewak and we can’t get through. Then he adds, but we’re too far out of Vanimo and haven’t got enough fuel to get back there, we’ll have to try to land here someplace.

Great. I think. We’re going to crash and die horribly amongst the dense bush in New Guinea. The pilot turns around and heads towards land, getting closed and closer to the ground. From the altimeter I can see, we’re now about one hundred metres above sea level. He is trying to fly below the storm to Wewak, but it’s no use, the storm is too dense and the trip is now quite rough, bumping and weaving through the air and still the pilot is talking to the control tower in Wewak. He is told to land at a private air strip belonging to a copra plantation about half way between Vanimo and Wewak.

Pilots in Papua New Guinea are great aviators. They know their stuff. This one is no exception. He gets us safely onto land and taxis towards a bush hut at the end of the air strip. We get out and go into the hut, just as the deluge comes down. The pilot jumps back onto the plane and taxis the plane off the grassy runway and up a grassy knoll opposite the hut. He secures the plane with ropes and runs over towards us. He is soaked. He tells us that the runway can get flooded and he had to bring the plane to higher ground to safe it.

Copra Plantation

A landrover drives up to the hut. It’s an employee of the plantation who has been told by Wewak that one of their planes would be landing on the airstrip. He takes us to the plantation about twenty minutes away where we are greeted by the plantation manager, his wife and children. They have prepared rooms for us and we settle down for a nice meal.

One thing about the Territory, a deluge comes quickly and stops quickly and by the time we go to bed the rain has stopped.

In the morning, we are driven back to the airstrip, the pilot hoping all the way, the plane is ok and the strip dry. He tells us that another pilot had to do the same and couldn't take off for a week as the runway was flooded. But in our case, all is well and we climb back onto the Piaggio for our return to Wewak.