MY LAST ADVENTURE
FLYING A FABULOUS BIRD!
Some years ago….well five or so but seems so much longer, seeing
how in this time I have since had contracts in the UK, Sweden, Italy, Iraq and
Azerbaijan…..I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to fly the fabulous
DC10-30 freighter for a recently defunct airline called Avient. However, my
time with this company was cut short due to various reasons, which are tales
for another time….so don’t ask!
Briefly, a little insight into this company, which I am sure
most people have never heard of. Avient was founded by a larger than life character
who was an ex-British army Captain in the Royal Engineers, operating from a
barn in a Wiltshire village in England with aircraft based in France. Its head
office was registered in Harare, Zimbabwe as were the two DC10 aircraft……are
you still following this? France yes, England yes, but I hoped that my future
schedules would not be taking me to the country of one of the world’s greatest
despots, especially after this well publicized little incident……
“Mugabe
spokesman and body-guard, George Charamba, and the then deputy Information
Minister, Bright Matonga, boasted that despite the efforts of the South African
workers, the three million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3 000 mortar
rounds and 1500 rocket-propelled grenades ordered from the Chinese government
had arrived in Harare. A Mozambican online publication reported that the arms
were finally flown to Harare in an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to Avient Aviation,
a freight charter airline based in Zimbabwe but registered in the UK.” Although
this has yet to be proven.
To understand further a little of the history of the company
then I suggest reading the following article from the British newspaper, The
Observer……..I did read it, but this was after I had finished my DC10 base
training and only caused myself to consider that I was in for a bigger
adventure than I had at first contemplated! So read on………
“To people in the peaceful Wiltshire village of Brigmerston, their new
neighbour seems like a perfect English gentleman: a tall, wealthy, bespectacled
former Army officer.
But an Observer investigation
has uncovered evidence that behind the doors of a luxury house on the edge of
the village, Andrew Smith runs a business empire which has made a fortune from
a bloody African civil war that has claimed millions of lives.
Smith, 49, a former captain of
the Royal Engineers, who runs his firm Avient from his home, faces claims that
one of his companies was involved in mercenary-style operations deep in the
eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also faces allegations
that he has been trading with a notorious arms dealer, Ukrainian-born Leonid
Minin.
A United Nations report has
accused Smith of organizing bombing raids in the DRC on behalf of President
Joseph Kabila to suppress rebel forces. It is alleged that three years ago
Avient received $30,000 a month for recruiting crew from Ukraine to fly in
Russian-made Antonovs behind enemy lines in 1999 and 2000.
One Avient contract signed by
Kabila stated: 'The crew will be advised that they will be operating along and
behind the enemy lines in support of ground troops and against invading forces.
It is specifically agreed that the crew...will undertake airdropping missions.'
The affair has clear overtones
of dogs-of-war style mercenary activity. Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb has
asked the British authorities to investigate the claims to see if there are
grounds for a criminal prosecution. 'I want to know how a British citizen with
a company operating from Wiltshire can be involved in such military activities
without breaking any law,' he said.
Smith, who is contesting the
UN claims, ran his African business through his Avient Company registered in
Zimbabwe. In this way Smith would have been able to avoid breaching the
European Union arms embargo against the DRC put in place in 1993.
Any investigation is likely to
study closely UN claims that Smith has a relationship with Minin, a senior member
of a Russian organized crime syndicate, who is under investigation in five
countries for crimes from gun running to art theft. Two years ago Minin was
arrested in an Italian police raid on a hotel in northern Italy where he was
found with 58 grams of cocaine, four prostitutes and $500,000 worth of African
diamonds. Police also discovered a green briefcase stuffed with 1,500 pages of
documents detailing numerous arms deals, including illegal sales to Liberia and
Sierra Leone.
The Observer has obtained bank
records found in Minin's briefcase which detail payments made by one of Minin's
associate companies. These documents reveal that on 22 June 1999 Avient
received a $100,500 payment from Engineering & Technical, a British Virgin
Islands firm run by Minin's business associate Valery Cherny.
The UN also accuses Smith of
brokering the sale of six attack helicopters to the DRC government in April
this year. Smith strongly denies this allegation. However, he did admit in an
interview with The Observer to shipping military cargo to the Congolese
government on behalf of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe three years ago.
Smith said: 'We have worked with the governments of Zimbabwe and the DRC who
are official organized governments of countries. We certainly don't work for
any rebel groups or any terrorists.'
Smith played down his role in
the alleged bombing raids, saying the Congo 'military hierarchy' controlled the
air crews and directed operations. He denied his company was a private military
company involved in any bombing raids, stressing that it was principally a
cargo-carrying business dealing mainly with commodities like food and
computers. But Smith has admitted to 'ferrying troops and people from place to
place' and leasing Russian-made transport aircraft to the Zimbabwean government
for use in Congo.
He said: 'I am not denying
that we carried military equipment for the end-user governments, which is a
perfectly legal operation to do. We are talking about three years ago. I did
check everything with the British High Commissioner at the time. We have never
been involved in the sale of goods at all, nor have we carried any military
hardware out of the EC, so we have not broken any UN or EU embargoes.' Smith
also denied any relationship with Minin. He said: 'I have never met the guy,
spoken to him or communicated with him.'
Smith's claims that he
received the approval of the British High Commission could be embarrassing for
the Government as there has been an arms embargo against the DRC since 1993.
Lamb is to raise the matter in the House of Commons. 'If it's true that the High
Commission OK'd such deals, I want to know why,' said Lamb.
The disclosures that a former
British soldier is helping military operations in central Africa will embarrass
the Government.
In the 1998 'arms for Africa'
affair it emerged that Sandline International, run by former British colonel
Tim Spicer, had supplied weapons to Sierra Leone despite a UN arms embargo.
Spicer avoided prosecution after it was revealed the British High Commissioner
to Sierra Leone had approved Sandline's plans.
Smith's involvement in
military operations in Congo is also likely to be a setback for government
plans to license mercenary companies. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claims such
firms could be used in UN peace-keeping operations and other
government-sponsored activities in trouble spots.”
I know most airlines have their own history….for example two
British airlines that I flew with, firstly Dan Air Services Ltd started out as
part of a ship broking firm with a solitary DC3 aircraft, and Thomsonfly in the
early 1960’s with Lockheed Constellations. Though that was ‘good’ history, Avient’s as
you have read belonged in a totally different category!
For the previous two years prior to joining Avient I had
been flying for said Thomsonfly as a Boeing 737 captain carrying holidaymakers
around Europe. I felt my new position would definitely be different and I was
looking forward to the challenge…but not the type rating course.
The DC10 being an almost ‘vintage’ aircraft, I was sure
would be technically complicated and boy I was not to be disappointed! No
computer based training aids to assist me, instead old fashioned photographic
slides and a projector system which overheated constantly, and smoked more than
the flight engineer who was under training with me did. I started to think that
we would be sent off to the Science Museum in London to finish trying to learn
all of this aircraft’s idiosyncrasies’.
The ex- British Caledonian Airlines ‘full flight’ simulator which
we were to hone our flying and operational skills on had the handling
characteristics of a washing machine on the spin cycle…..but brilliant fun. To
add realism to the age of all this, one of my simulator instructors, an
absolute gentleman, flew Avro Lancaster bombers at the end of the Second World
War, whilst another had the record for the most carrier launches flying the
Mirage in the French Navy and then there was the Chief Pilot another of life’s
true gentlemen…..even if he had once been a British policeman! I was most
definitely in good hands.
For the record the only reason I left ‘Tommyfly’ was due to
their merger with First Choice, though it was widely known in the industry at
the time that this airline was actually their second choice! With my position
on the rigid Thomsonfly seniority list………virtually at the bottom and just above
the office cleaners and the automated phone operators; meant that after the
merger I was either going to be made redundant or demoted, neither was an
option I was looking forward to adding to my CV, so I decided to resign!
So Andrew Smith’s kind offer to join him at Avient was
eagerly accepted, even though I was sad to leave Tommyfly as it was a fabulous
job, flying with very competent and delightful colleagues; both my cockpit and
cabin-crew colleagues. I would add that the B737 was looked at as being an
inferior aircraft by some of the Thomsonfly Gods that flew the mighty Boeing
757/767s which was a daft attitude.
As an example, I remember one day I was on a turn-around at the
Cypriot airport of Paphos, parked next to my, well mine for the day I couldn’t
afford a whole one, Boeing 737-800 was a company Boeing767. So whilst we re-fuelled,
I thought I would go and say ‘Hi’ to my company colleagues. After being
escorted into the B767 cockpit by a member of their cabin-crew, I introduced
myself……the co-pilot ignored me and the Captain turned around and said and I
quote…
“Where’s your aircraft, I can’t see it?” I replied…….”On
your left-hand side?” My aircraft was parked right next to them and clearly
visible. “Oh, I think I see a light twin hiding behind that fuel bowser.” And
then continued with his pre-flight preparations, I realised that my audience
was already over and bid my farewell…..but just before I left I asked “What is
your maximum take-off weight?” The co-pilot looked up for the first time and
proudly stated “159 tonnes.” I paused and replied as I was exiting…..”My last
aircraft type which I skippered, we used to load more than that in fuel!” To
which they both looked up, I smiled and left!
I digress, as I so often do; being employed by Avient I very
quickly learnt that you had to stretch the meaning of the word ‘flexible’ to its
maximum extent but in turn this enhanced the fun of the operation……..frequently!
There was no timetable or schedule as such to follow, often
your next flight’s destination would be changed just hours before departure as
we would have to chase the freight…..well making money was obviously the name
of the game, Andrew’s game, though on this rotation I can’t help but feel that
in Lagos I lost 65 tonnes of cash…….!
Right then, my apologies, back to my last rotation, though I
didn’t know it was to be so at the time, started from Vatry an ex-military
airfield about seventy miles due east of Paris near the town of Chalons.
Our crew comprised two pilots a flight engineer and a
loadmaster, great guys and we were to embark on the first leg of our adventure
which would see us flying from Vatry to Tripoli Libya to uplift cheap fuel.
This would be my first visit to Libya and I would not return for another three
years when on an Iraqi evacuation flight during the civil war which culminated
in Gadhafi’s overthrow and death, originating from Baghdad in a Boeing 747-400
for the Government of Iraq…….happy days!
Once on-board, I checked the maintenance log and noted that
it was almost totally clear of defects…….however, it quickly became apparent
that it was a legal requirement to complete the deferred defect section using
invisible ink!
I was advised by the flight engineer that there were
actually a ‘few unpublished’ defects, which were………
TO BE COMPLETED SOON! JUST LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO READ
ON?
