Businessman should not have flown at night

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Businessman should not have flown at night

8:33 CAT | 04 Jan 2019

Rogerio Manuel - Former chairperson of the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), who died in a helicopter crash on Saturday night

Maputo, 2 Jan (AIM) – Prominent Mozambican businessman Rogerio Manuel, the former chairperson of the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), who died in a helicopter crash on Saturday night, did not have the necessary qualifications to make night flights, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.

Manuel was flying an R44-Robinson helicopter. According to airport sources contacted by the paper, this aircraft is not equipped with appropriate instruments for night flights and landings. This 3-seater helicopter has a cruising speed of 200 kilometres an hour, and can only fly for three hours before refuelling.

Manuel wanted to make a return flight from Maputo to the tourist resort of Bilene, in the southern province of Gaza. But when he submitted his flight plan, the staff member on duty refused to grant authorisation.

“Carta de Mocambique” notes that this was the correct decision, given that neither the pilot nor the helicopter should have flown at night. But Manuel refused to accept a decision that would have saved his life.

Instead he made a phone call. Whoever was speaking on the other end authorised the flight, Manuel took off – and a few minutes later he was dead. The helicopter crashed in sand dunes in Calanga, in Manhica district, about half way between Maputo and Manhica.

The verbal authorisation given over the phone was illegal. The airport should have stuck to the original decision, and refused to allow Manuel to take off.

So far, it is not known who gave the fatal authorisation. The Chairperson of the Mozambique Airports Company (ADM), Emmanuel Chaves, told “Carta de Mocambique” that it had nothing to do with him. He was not consulted, he said, and played no role in the decision to allow Manuel to fly.

The paper pointed out to Chaves that this was not the first time Manuel had defied safety regulations and flown at night. But Chavez simply insisted that he had never authorised such flights – though he admitted that, if the investigations into the crash were to indicate that he should resign, then he would do so.
The investigations are in the hands of the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM), which ought to investigate exactly who allowed Manuel to take off.

One version circulating on social media claims that the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. An IACM source, however, told “Carta de Mocambique” that this story is false. For airport officials, it is a convenient falsehood, since it puts the blame for the crash exclusively on Manuel’s shoulders.

Source: AIM